FROM   THE   LIBRARY  OF 


REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

•3 


/'V??r'z 


HISTORY   OF 
RELIGION    IN    ENGLAND. 


A«V  OF  P ^^^^ 

,  MAR  12  .1932 


HISTORY    OF     ^^i^iOi-iULuv 
RELIGION    IN    ENGLAND, 


F/^OJf   THE    OPENING    OF   THE 

LONG    PARLIAMENT   TO    THE   END    OF   THE 

EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 


JOHN    STOUGHTON,    D.D. 


VOLUME  III. 
THE    CHURCH    OF   THE    RESTORATION. 


NEW  AND  REVISED  EDITION. 


A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    AND    SON. 

714,     BROADWAY. 

MDCCCLXXXII. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Political  Character  of  Puritanism,  2. —  Its  Ecclesiastical  Cha- 
racter, 7. — Its  Spiritual  Character,  11. — Richard  Cromwell,  14. — 
His  Parhament  in  its  Religious  Measures,  17. — Howe  at  White- 
hall, 25. — Wallingford  House,  and  the  Church  at  Yarmouth,  27, 
— Alleged  proceedings  on  the  part  of  Baptists,  31. — Presby- 
terians, 32. — Episcopalians,  34. 

CHAPTER   II. 

Interregnum,  39.  —  London  an  Ecclesiastical  and  PoHtical 
Babel,  40. — General  Monk  and  Hugh  Peters,  43. — Excitement, 
46. — Decline  of  Political  Importance  in  the  Independent  Party, 
48. — Presbyterian  Influence  in  the  Restoration,  49. — Monk's 
Policy,  54. — Convention  Parhament,  56. — Outbreak  in  Common- 
wealth Army,  57. — Breda  Declaration,  60.  —  The  King  Pro- 
claimed, 63.  —  Imprudent  Method  of  restoring  Charles,  64.  — 
Presbyterian  Ministers  sent  over  to  the  Hague,  67. — Episcopalian 
Address,  70. 

CHAPTER  III. 

Arrival  of  the  King,  72.  —  Presbyterian  and  Independent 
Addresses, ']']. — Royal  Supremacy,  80. — All  Affairs  in  a  Transition 
State,  82. — Disbanding  of  the  Army,  86. — Commons  debate  the 
Question  of  Church  Settlement,  88. — TheRestoration  of  Cathedrals 
and  Other  Edifices  to  the  Former  Occupiers,  91. — The  Condition 


vi  CONTENTS. 

of  the  Universities,  92. — Changes  in  the  Relation  of  Ecclesiastical 
Parties,  93. — Church  Property,  94. — Bishops  still  living,  97. — 
Clerical  Applications  for  Preferment,  97. — Meetings  at  Sion 
College,  loi. — Address  to  his  Majesty  for  reduced  Episcopacy, 
103.  —  What  the  Presbyterians  had  to  say,  106.  —  What  the 
EpiscopaHans  had  to  say,  109. — Meetings  at  Worcester  House, 
113. — The  King's  Declaration,  115. — Preferments  offered  to 
Presbyterians,  119.  —  Bill  in  the  Commons  founded  on  the 
Declaration,  121. — Court  Policy,  124, 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Regicides,  127. — Consecration  of  New  Bishops,  131. — 
Canon  Law,  and  Statute  Law  brought  to  bear  on  Noncon- 
formists, 135. — Other  Forms  of  Repression,  136. — Venner's  Insur- 
rection, 141. — Nonconformists  protest  against  it,  144. — Opening 
of  Baxter's  Letters,  145. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Elections  for  New  Parliament,  147. — Appearance  of  House  of 
Lords,  153. — ^Commission  for  Savoy  Conference,  154.  —  The 
Coronation,  159. — Meeting  of  the  Conference,  161. — Elections  for 
Convocation,  167. — The  Conference  and  Convocation  going  on 
Side  by  Side,  168. — Exceptions  taken  to  the  Liturgy  and  Replies, 
176. — Presbyterian  Rejoinder,  180. —  Viva  Voce  Conference,  181. 
— Interview  of  Presbyterians  with  Lord  Clarendon,  188.— Result 
of  the  Whole,  189. — Non-interference  of  Independents,  190. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Solemn  League  and  Covenant  burnt,  193. — Prelates  restored 
to  Upper  House,  194. — Bearing  of  Corporation  Bill  on  Religion, 
196. — Bill  for  restoring  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  196. — Introduction 
of  Uniformity  Bill,  197.— Second  Reading,  199. — Before  the 
Lords,  202. — Rumours,  203. — Annoyance  of  Nonconformists,  204. 


CONTENTS.  vii 

—Reassembling  of  Parliament,  205. — Alarming  Letters  Reported, 
206. — Meeting  of  Convocation,  209. — Prayer  Book,  210. — Liberty 
for  Extempore  Devotion  precluded,  217. — House  of  Lords  engaged 
on  the  Question  of  Subscription,  219. — The  Prayer  Book  sub- 
scribed, 220. — Convocation  and  the  Canons,  222. — New  Conse- 
crations in  Westminster  Abbey,  223. — Lords'  Treatment  of  the 
Uniformity  Bill,  225. — Amendments,  228. — Arguments,  229. — 
Conference  beween  Lords  and  Commons,  238. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

Royal  Assent  to  the  Bill,  242. — Change  made  in  the  Establish- 
ment, 243. — Parties  responsible — Convocation,  245. — House  of 
Commons,  247. — Clarendon,  ib. — Roman  Catholic  Party,  248. — 
Certain  Religious  Matters  not  provided  for,  250. — Treatment  of 
Regicides — Vane,  253. — Ludlow,  Whalley,  and  Gough,  255. — St. 
Bartholomew's  Day  anticipated,  257.  —  Individual  Decisions 
formed,  259. — Conferences  amongst  Ministers,  263. — Political 
Discontents,  264.  —  Pepys  at  Church  the  Week  before  St. 
Bartholomew's  Day,  267. — Sermons  in  the  Country,  269. — Mar- 
riage of  Charles  to  Catherine  of  Braganza,  271. — Farewells,  273. 
— Conformists  and  Nonconformists,  276. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

Presbyterian  Petition,  279. — Operation  of  the  Act,  281. — 
Bishops  and  Archdeacons  issue  Articles  of  Inquiry,  284. — Some 
Episcopalians  regret  what  was  done,  2S7. — Rumoured  Plots,  289. 
^Declaration  of  Indulgence,  291. — Assembly  of  Parliament,  293. 
— How  the  Indulgence  was  regarded,  295. — Petition  against 
Papists,  297. — Meaning  of"  Assent  and  Consent,"  298. — Sabbath 
Observance,  299. — Change  in  the  Episcopal  Bench,  300. — Non- 
conformist Meetings  secretly  held,  302. — Ecclesiastical  Policy 
respecting  the  Colonies,  305. — The  Farnley  Wood  Affair,  307. — 
Where  Nonconformists  worshipped,  and  how  Ministers  were 
supported,  310. — The  Conventicle  Act,  316. — Its  Execution,  321. 
—Clerical  Right  of  Self-Taxation  abolished,  323. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   IX. 


The  Plague,  327.— Ministers  who  remained  in  the  City,  330. 
—Also  in  the  Country,  Mompesson,  Stanley,  and  Shaw,  335.— 
Oxford  Parliament,  and  Dutch  War,  337.— Five-Mile  Act,  339-— 
Difference  of  Opinion  respecting  it  amongst  Nonconformists,  342. 
— How  some  escaped  the  Penalty,  346. — Nonconformists  sus- 
pected of  Disaffection,  347. — Fire  of  London,  350.  —  Parties 
Suspected,  353. — Exertions  of  Nonconformists,  355. — Religious 
Rising  in  the  North,  356. — The  Dutch  in  the  Medway,  and  an 
Empty  Exchequer,  359. — ^Fall  of  Clarendon,  361. — Religious 
Aspects  of  his  Policy,  363. — Compared  with  Lord  Burleigh,  365. 
— Complaints  of  the  Increase  of  Nonconformists,  368. 

CHAPTER  X. 

A  Pamphleteering  Age,  371. — Scheme  for  Comprehension,  373. 
— What  Episcopahans  proposed,  374. — What  was  proposed  by 
Presbyterians,  376. — Scheme  frustrated,  yj"]. — Letters  respecting 
Fanatics,  379. — Bill  for  removing  Conventicle  Act  falls  through, 
381. — The  King  grants  the  Presbyterians  an  Audience,  382. — 
Presbyterians  avail  themselves  of  the  Expiration  of  the  Con- 
venticle Act  ;  but  the  Five-Mile  Act  remains  in  Force,  385. — 
Returns  made  to  Sheldon,  relative  to  Nonconformists,  ib. — A  New 
Bill  against  Conventicles  introduced,  and  the  Difference  between 
it,  and  the  Former  Act,  387. — Quaker  Sufferings,  389. — The  Cabal 
and  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  391. — How  regarded,  395. — 
Episode  respecting  Charles,  the  Quakers,  and  John  Bunyan,  402. 

CHAPTER  XL 

Pohtical  Parties,  407. — Debate  on  Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
409. — Bill  for  Relief  carried  by  the  Commons,  but  afterwards  lost 
hrough  a  Prorogation,  414. — Test  Act,  415. — Indulgence  can- 
celled, 418.— State  of  Nonconformists,  420. — Return  of  Intoler- 
ance, 425.— Renewed  Question  of  Comprehension,  428. — Renewed 
Parliamentary  Attention  to  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  430.— Changing 


CONTENTS.  ix 

Fortunes  of  Dissent,  431. — Publications  by  Parker,  Owen,  Andrew 
Marvell,  and  Croft,  433. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Roman  Catholicism  in  England,  439. — The  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  York,  440. — Protestant  Opposition,  443. — Parliamentary  Cor- 
ruption, 447. — Religion  mixed  up  with  the  Committal  of  Four 
Lords  to  the  Tower,  449. — Bills  against  Popery,  and  for  other 
Religious  Objects,  453. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Bishops — Sheldon,  458. — Ward,  462. — Morley,  465. — Cosin, 
466. — Hacket,  469. — Wilkins,  470. — Pearson  and  Reynolds,  473. 
— Croft,  474. — Wren,  475. — Laney  and  Gunning,  476. — Paul, 
477.  —  Warner  and  Earle,  478. — Skinner,  479.  —  Nicholson, 
Henchman,  and  Rainbow,  480. — Henshaw  and  Ironside,  481. — 
Blandford,  482. — Frewen  and  Sterne,  483. — Dolben,  Griffith,  and 
Glemham,  486. — Barrow  and  Wood,  487. — Brideoake,  488. — 
William  Lloyd,  489.— State  of  the  Clergy,  491. — Their  Religious 
and  Moral  Character,  497. 


APPENDIX. 

No.  I.,  page  501,  on  Alterations  in  the  Prayer  Book,  according 
to  Cardwell,  in  accordance  with  Puritan  recommendation.  It 
relates  to  page  178  of  this  Volume. 

No.  II.,  page  503,  on  the  Number  of  the  Ejected.  It  relates  to 
Chapter  VII.  of  this  Volume. 


CHAPTER   I. 

The  knell  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  was  rung- 
when  Oliver  Cromwell  died.  The  causes  of  its  disso- 
lution may  easily  be  discovered.  Some  of  them  had 
been  in  operation  for  a  long  time,  and  had  prepared 
for  the  change  which  now  took  place. 

Puritanism  never  gained  a  majority  of  the  English 
people.  By  some  of  the  greatest  in  the  nation  it  was 
espoused,  and  their  name,  example,  and  influence,  gave 
it  for  a  time  a  position  defying  assault  ;  but  the  m.ul- 
titude  stood  ranged  on  the  opposite  side.  Forced  to 
succumb,  and  stricken  with  silence,  disaffected  persons 
abated  not  a  jot  of  their  bitter  antipathy  to  the  party 
in  power.  Even  amongst  those  who  wore  the  livery  of 
the  day,  who  used  the  forms,  who  adopted  the  usages 
of  their  masters,  many  lacked  sympathy  with  the 
system  which,  from  self-interest  or  timidity,  they  had 
been  induced  to  accept.  The  Puritans  were  not  the 
hypocrites  ;  the  hypocrites  really  were  people  of  another 
religion,  or  of  no  religion,  who  pretended  to  be  Puritans. 
Besides  these,  there  were  numbers  who  whispered  mur- 
murs, or  bit  their  lips  in  dumb  impatience,  as  they 
watched  for  signs  of  change. 

A   mischievous    policy   had   been    pursued   by   the 

VOL.    III.  ^ 


2  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

Puritans  towards  the  old  Church  of  England.  Laud's 
execution  yielded  a  harvest  of  revenge.  The  extirpa- 
tion of  Episcopacy,  and  the  suppression  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  kindled  an  exasperation  which  kept  alive  a 
resentful  intolerance  down  to  the  period  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. I  am  aware  of  the  excuses  made  for  Puritan 
despotism,  and  am  ready  to  allow  some  palliation  for 
wrong  done  under  provoking  circumstances,  but  I  must 
continue  to  express  indignation  at  the  injustice  com- 
mitted ;  all  the  more,  because  of  my  religious  sympathy 
with  the  men  who  thus  tarnished  their  fame.  It  must, 
however,  be  confessed  that  had  Presbyterians  and  In- 
dependents been  ever  so  merciful  in  the  hour  of  their 
might,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose,  from  what  is 
known  of  their  opponents,  that  they  would  have  shown 
any  mercy  in  return. 

In  enumerating  the  causes  of  the  failure  of  Puritan- 
ism as  a /(?////m/ institution,  notice  should  be  taken  of 
the  prohibition  of  ancient  customs.  How  far  the  pro- 
hibition extended  has  been  pointed  out  in  former 
volumes,  and  I  must  repeat,  that  whilst  endeavours  to 
suppress  national  vice  were  most  praiseworthy,  some  of 
the  Parliamentary  prohibitions  at  the  time  were,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  unjust  and  unnatural.  Those  who 
chose  to  celebrate  Christmas,  Easter,  Whitsuntide,  and 
other  seasons,  had  a  perfect  right  to  do  so  ;  and  some, 
though  not  all,  of  the  amusements  remorselessly  put 
down,  were  in  themselves  innocent,  pleasant,  and  even 
venerable  in  their  associations,  and  in  their  tendencies 
productive  of  kindly  fellowship  between  class  and  class. 

Puritan  rule  in  England  came  as  the  child  of  revolu- 
tion— a  revolution  mainly  accomplished  by  civil  war. 
The  first  battle,  indeed,  and  that  which  led  to  all  the 
others,  was  fought  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Com- 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:  3 

mons.  The  patriots  being  returned  as  the  represent- 
atives of  the  most  active  and  influential  citizens,  many 
of  Avhom  were  Puritans,  possessed  an  immense  amount 
of  political  power,  and,  as  statesmen,  they  turned  the 
scale  in  favour  of  revolution  ;  but  the  revolution  had  to 
make  good  its  ground  by  force,  and  the  patriots,  as 
soldiers,  had  to  crush  resistance  in  the  field.  This  was 
a  necessity.  The  attitude  of  the  King,  and  the  chivalrous 
spirit  of  the  nobles  who  rallied  round  him,  under  the 
circumstances  in  which  Parliament  had  placed  itself, 
rendered  an  appeal  to  arms  inevitable.  The  wager  of 
battle  having  been  accepted,  the  quarrel  having  been 
fought  out  bravely  on  both  sides,  the  relative  position 
of  the  victors  and  the  vanquished  could  not  but  em- 
bitter the  feelings  existing  amongst  them.  The  van- 
quished submitted  without  grace  to  their  conquerors. 
They  hated  the  new  political  constitution.  When  they 
seemed  quiet  they  were  only  biding  their  time,  and 
preparing  for  an  outbreak.  Memories  of  privation,  of 
imprisonment,  of  cruel  usage,  of  houses  burnt,  of  fathers, 
sons,  and  brothers  slain,  and  especially  the  mortification 
of  defeat,  constantly  irritated  the  Cavalier  and  goaded 
him  to  revenge.  The  blister  was  kept  open  year  after 
year.  The  wound  never  healed.  Alienation,  or  resent- 
ment, on  the  part  of  the  Royalist  provoked  new  oppres- 
sion on  the  part  of  the  Commonwealth's  man.  Fresh 
oppression  from  the  hands  of  the  one  produced  fresh 
resentment  in  the  breast  of  the  other. 

A  civil  war  may  be  needful  for  the  deliverance  of  a 
country  ;  but  the  recollections  of  it  for  a  long  while 
must  be  a  misfortune,  since  those  recollections  exhibit 
the  new  state  of  things  to  the  party  on  the  opposite 
side  as  a  result  of  force,  not  as  a  result  of  reason  ;  and 
the  remembrance  of  imposition  ever  involves  a  sense  of 


4  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

wrong-.  Under  this  misfortune  the  triumphant  Puritans 
laboured  throughout  the  Protectorate. 

After  the  Restoration  the  misfortune,  in  some  respects,, 
became  heavier  than  before.  The  previous  eighteen 
years  had  been  to  the  Royahst  }-ears  in  which  violence 
destroyed  the  Monarchy  and  the  Church.  They  were 
the  years  of  the  Great  Rebellion — so  the  political  Revo- 
lution came  to  be  named — and  in  that  nam^e,  specious 
and  plausible,  although  untruthful  and  unjust,  lay  much 
of  the  capital  with  which  political  leaders  after  the 
Restoration  carried  on  their  trade  of  oppression  and 
wrong.  The  Puritans,  they  said,  were  rebels,  for  they 
had  fought  against  the  Crown :  what  they  had  done 
once  they  would  do  again.  A  valid  defence  was  at 
hand,  for  the  Puritans  could  show  that  there  was  nothing 
really  inconsistent  between  their  peaceful  submission 
to  the  restored  monarch,  and  the  course  which  they 
had  pursued  under  the  Long  Parliament  ;  yet,  although 
they  could  make  out  a  case  satisfactory  to  impartial 
men,  over  against  their  logic,  however  forcible,  there 
stood  some  awkward  facts  of  1642  and  the  following 
years,  upon  which  High  Churchmen  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.  were  never  weary  of  ringing  changes. 

The  Long  Parliament  had  rested  upon  the  Army ; 
so  had  the  constitution  of  the  Protectorate.  His  High- 
ness's  rule  had  been  fortified  by  his  major-generals  and 
his  troops.  For  its  good  aiid  for  its  evil  it  depended 
upon  soldiers.  A  military  despotism  had  become  neces- 
sary from  the  confusion  of  the  times  ;  it  alone  could 
bring  quiet  to  the  country  after  political  earthquakes. 
The  regal  sway  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  great 
general,  a  great  statesman,  and  a  great  patriot,  who, 
because  he  combined  these  three  characters,  was  able 
to  work  out  benevolent  designs  for  his  country.     So 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:  5 

long  as  he  held  the  baton,  so  long  as  he  drew  the  sword, 
he  could  maintain  his  standing,  but  not  a  moment 
longer.  He  had  immense  difificulties  to  overcome. 
Episcopalians  were  almost  all  against  him  ;  very  many 
Presbyterians  stood  aloof  or  ofifered  opposition ;  Spiritual 
Republicans,  Fifth  Monarchy  men  were  his  torment  ; 
even  Congregationalists,  with  whom  he  felt  spiritual 
sympathy,  wished  for  a  more  democratic  government 
than  he  would  allow  ;  the  Quakers  neither  loved  nor 
feared  him.  Besides,  he  had  political  colleagues  who, 
as  statesmen,  appeared  in  opposition.  Also,  old  generals 
were  looking  after  an  occasion  for  making  resistance. 
Vane  and  Haselrig,  Harrison  and  Ludlow,  disapproved 
of  the  policy  of  their  former  friend.  They  disliked  the 
new  Constitution  ;  they  were  for  placing  the  keys  in 
the  hands  of  Parliament,  not  in  the  hands  of  a  single 
person.  They  regarded  the  Protector  as  the  Greeks 
had  regarded  a  tyrant.  Monarchy  they  detested. 
Democracy  they  would  enthrone;  yet  they  saw  amongst 
them  a  sovereign,  mightier  than  any  Stuart,  only  called 
by  another  name.  And  it  became  a  germ  of  weakness 
in  the  new  Constitution,  that  it  had  to  be  defended  by 
arguments  similar  to  those  which  availed  for  the  support 
of  the  ancient  monarchy.  It  could  be  said — and  truly 
said — that  English  traditions,  usages,  genius,  spirit,  and 
social  necessities,  demanded  a  supreme  head,  the  rule 
"  of  a  single  person."  But  the  rule  of  a  single  person 
was  the  very  thing  so  hateful  to  the  Republicans, 
although  connected  with  the  modifying  checks  of  a 
Parliament.  Many  saw  that  the  reasons  employed  in 
favour  of  Oliver  Cromwell's  Protectorate  might  be  em- 
ployed more  consistently  in  favour  of  the  restoration  of 
Charles  Stuart.  This  circumstance  was  felt  by  numbers 
who  did  not  confess  it. 


6  RELIGIOX  ly  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  T. 

Moreover,  respecting  domestic  and  foreign  policy- 
Cromwell  had  to  meet  strong  opposition.  Finances, 
and  law  reform,  were  matters  of  contention.  The  Dutch 
war,  the  French  alliance,  and  the  relations  with  Spain, 
also  presented  points  in  which  he  and  other  distin- 
guished Commonwealth's  men  differed.  As  the  political 
reign  of  Puritanism  depended  upon  Cromwell  these 
circumstances  could  not  fail  to  undermine  its  strength. 
His  statesmanship  showed  consummate  ability ;  his 
knowledge  of  mankind  and  of  individuals  amounted  to 
a  species  of  divination  ;  his  control  over  those  about 
him  was  irresistible ;  his  sagacity,  vigilance,  prompti- 
tude, decision,  and  patience  were  unrivalled  ;  his  name 
was  a  tower  of  strength  at  home  and  abroad  ;  his 
foreign  policy  was  successful,  and  therefore,  as  long  as 
he  lived,  the  system  which  he  had  inaugurated  and 
administered  was  sure  to  last.  It  did,  but  at  his  death 
there  came  a  collapse.  There  remained  no  master- 
mind to  rule  the  State,  and  to  control  the  Army.  The 
State  soon  showed  a  disposition  to  go  one  way,  the 
Army  another.  Confusions  ensued  ;  and  the  latter  fell 
under  the  command  of  a  soldier  who  betrayed  his  trust, 
and  employed  his  influence  to  pull  down  the  entire 
fabric  of  Puritan  power. 

So  far,  then,  as  Puritanism  had  become  a  political 
institute  it  sunk  under  the  shock  of  Oliver  Cromwell's 
death.  But  though  as  an  institute  it  crum.bled  away, 
the  political  spirit  which  it  had  evoked  and  cherished 
did  not  die.  It  would  be  a  repetition  of  what  has  been 
said  a  hundred  times,  to  insist  here  upon  the  influence 
of  the  Puritan  leaders  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  the 
influence  of  the  Puritan  chiefs  of  the  Commonwealth 
Army  in  preparing  for  the  political  liberties  of  England,, 
guaranteed   at   the   Revolution.      A    peaceful   change 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  7 

then  came  as  the  consequence  and  complement  of  the 
Civil  Wars.  It  is  the  destiny  of  nations  to  pass 
through  the  waters  of  conflict  and  suffering  ere  they 
can  reach  the  shores  of  freedom.  Our  Puritan  fathers 
then  breasted  the  torrent,  and  made  good  their  landing 
on  the  right  side,  where  we,  thanks  to  their  bravery  and 
endurance,  have,  under  God,  found  a  home.  The  super- 
structure they  immediately  raised  was  not  permanent  ; 
but  its  strong  foundation-stones  were  too  deeply  laid 
to  be  removed  in  a  brief  period  of  reaction  ;  and  on 
them  we  now  are  building  new  forms  of  political  justice, 
order,  and  peace.  It  may  take  longer  time  and  nobler 
labour  than  we  imagine  to  complete  the  edifice,  but 
our  hope  and  trust  is  that  Divine  providence  will  one 
day  bring  it  to  perfection. 

Puritanism  must  be  considered  under  its  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  its  political  aspect.  It  became  political 
through  its  ecclesiastical  action,  and  its  ecclesiastical 
character  has  been  damaged  by  its  political  relations. 
It  was  worked  up  into  an  elaborate  Presbyterian  system, 
framed  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  the 
nation  in  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  but  for  the  purpose 
also  of  constituting  every  Englishman  a  member  of  the 
Church,  and  of  subjecting  him  to  the  authority  and 
discipline  of  its  officers.  This  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion its  advocates  brought,  so  far  as  they  could,  into 
union  with  the  civil  government  to  be  defended  and 
enforced  by  the  magistrate.  And  where  Puritanism 
assumed  a  Congregational  shape,  and  claimed  the  name 
of  freedom,  although,  as  to  Church  institutes,  it  sought, 
and  to  some  degree  attained,  liberty  of  operation,  yet, 
in  all  cases  where  its  ministers  were  parochial  incum- 
bents, they,  by  their  identification  with  the  national 
establishment,   exposed    themselves    to    the    political 


8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

danger  which,  at  certain  crises,  threaten  institutions 
of  that  description.  When  ecclesiastical  arrangements 
are  complicated  with  State  affairs  they  must  be  subject 
to  a  common  fortune.  What  endangers  the  one  en- 
dangers the  other,  and  the  history  of  Puritanism  offers 
no  exception  to  the  general  rule. 

Two  ecclesiastical  principles  are  seen  at  work  in 
connection  with  the  religious  organizations  which 
existed  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century ; 
Erastianism  and  Voluntaryism.  Erastianism  came 
across  the  path  of  both  Presbyterians  and  Congrega- 
tionalists.  It  wrought  powerfully  through  the  ordinances 
and  laws  of  the  Long  Parliament,  in  the  way  of  check- 
ing what  it  justly  deemed  the  despotic  tendencies  of 
uncontrolled  authority  in  the  exercise  of  discipline. 
The  working  of  Erastianism  is  visible  in  the  legal 
prevention  of  the  full  establishment  of  parochial 
assemblies  and  provincial  synods  ;  and  in  the  inter- 
ference of  the  magistrate  with  those  Independent 
pastors  holding  benefices,  who  would  fain  have  ex- 
cluded from  the  Lord's  table  persons  whom  they 
deemed  morally  unfitted  for  approaching  it.  In  curb- 
ing suspected  despotism,  Erastianism,  as  is  its  wont, 
paralyzed  the  hand  of  a  salutary  restraint  upon  the 
irregularities  of  Christian  professors.  It  opened  a  door 
for  promiscuous  communion.  It  thwarted  the  designs, 
and  enfeebled  the  energy,  of  ecclesiastical  Puritanism  ; 
and  thus  laxity  of  fellowship  followed  as  a  penalty  for 
seeking  State  support,  on  the  part  of  communities 
which  prized  the  purity  of  Christ's  Church. 

Voluntaryism  cannot  properly  be  identified  with 
Puritanism.  The  leading  Puritans  neither  advocated 
nor  countenanced  that  principle ;  such  as  were  Episco- 
palians did  not.     The  Presbyterians,  and  some  of  the 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOy.  9 

Independents,  as  I  have  this  moment  noticed,  did 
not,  A  few  of  the  Baptists  did  not.  OHver  Cromwell, 
who  protected  them  all,  did  not.  Whilst  some  Puritans 
thus  stood  apart  from  Voluntaries,  and  even  opposed 
them,  there  were  some  Voluntaries  who  stood  apart 
from  Puritanism,  and  even  opposed  that.  The  Quakers, 
from  the  commencement  of  their  history,  protested 
against  the  union  of  Church  and  State,  and  were  ever 
faithful  to  their  convictions  in  this  as  well  as  in  other 
respects  ;  they  also  kept  aloof  from  Puritanism  alto- 
gether, and  even  condemned  it  severely,  under  several 
of  its  aspects.  Many  of  the  Independents,  and  more 
of  the  Baptists,  previously  to  the  Civil  Wars,  also 
disapproved  strongly  of  that  kind  of  union  which  dis- 
pleased the  Quakers,  and  contended  firmly  for  the 
•support  of  Churches  by  voluntary  contributions  ;  yet 
they  entered  into  cordial  alliance  with  Puritanism  in 
other  things,  promoting  certain  of  its  political  proceed- 
ings, and  sympathizing  generally  with  its  spiritual 
movements  and  tendencies.  Voluntaryism  had  strong 
affinities  for  the  spiritual  side  of  Puritanism,  deriving 
from  it  the  most  vigorous  impulses,  contributing  towards 
it  the  most  devoted  service  ;  and  if  it  did  not  win  its 
way  at  first  amongst  the  rich,  the  noble,  and  the 
learned,  it  laid  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  the  humbler 
classes  ;  and,  by  widely  leavening  them  with  its  power, 
prepared  for  subsequently  working  upwards  to  that 
influence  which  is  exercised  by  it  in  the  present  day. 
The  history  of  this  principle  is  the  same  throughout : 
as  it  was  with  the  primitive  Christians,  as  it  Avas  with 
so  many  of  the  most  pious  and  active  men  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  as  it  has  been  with  the  Methodists,  so 
it  was  with  those  of  whom  I  speak.  They  began  their 
work,  "  in  a  great  trial  of  affliction  the  abundance  of 


lo  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

their  joy  and  their  deep  poverty  abounded  unto  the 
riches  of  their  liberality." 

Voluntaryism,  so  far  as  it  affected  Puritanism,  did 
not  contribute  to  its  weakness,  but  to  its  strength  ;  yet 
amongst  those  who  professed  Voluntaryism,  as  amongst 
those  who  adopted  different  views,  there  appeared  an 
element  which  proved  injurious  to  them  all.  It  was 
disunion,  it  was  strife.  If  the  Crusading  knights  had 
been  of  one  mind,  it  is  a  question,  whether,  in  the  end, 
they  would  have  retained  mastery  over  the  Mussulmen  ; 
but  certainly  they  stood  no  chance  whilst  feuds  were 
rife  in  the  Camp  of  the  Cross.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  the  Puritans.  It  would  have  been  hard  enough,  with 
the  utmost  concentration  of  force,  to  bear  down  oppo- 
sition ;  but  amidst  their  own  discords  it  became  simply 
impossible.  Presbyterians  were  of  different  shades  of 
opinion,  and  they  were  not  without  mutual  jealousies. 
But  their  hatred  of  what  they  stigmatized  as  Sec- 
tarianism appears  scarcely  less  than  their  hatred  of 
Prelacy,  or  even  of  Romanism  ;  in  some  minds  abhor- 
rence existed  equally  in  reference  to  all  three.  The 
sects  were  not  behindhand  in  their  mutual  antipathies, 
and  were  by  no  means  gentle  in  their  collisions.  Inde- 
pendents, Baptists,  and  Quakers,  to  mention  no  others 
— I  speak  of  them  all  generally — did  anything  but  keep 
"  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bonds  of  peace."  The 
apostolic  warning  betokened  evil  to  Puritan  Christen- 
dom in  England,  "If  ye  bite  and  devour  one  another, 
take  heed  that  ye  be  not  consumed  one  of  another." 
Yet  those  whose  eyes  are  open  to  discern  the  defects 
in  principle  and  temper  of  the  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tions of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  Commonwealth, 
can  also  see  that  Puritanism  has  bequeathed  to  English 
Christendom  a  precious  legacy  of  religious   freedom. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  ii 

That  spirit  has  not  only  created  modern  Free 
Churches, — which,  whatever  may  be  men's  opinions  on 
ecclesiastical  questions,  must  be  regarded  as  efficient 
powers  in  spreading  Christianity  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  in  exerting  manifold  beneficial  influences  upon 
society  at  large,— but  that  spirit  has  also  leavened, 
to  a  large  extent,  other  communities  not  based  upon 
what  is  called  the  voluntary  principle.  Toleration,  for 
which  the  Independents  struggled  under  Cromwell, 
won  a  victory  in  1688,  an  imperfect  victory  it  is  true, 
but  still  precious ;  and  the  toleration  then  established 
opened  the  way  for  progress  now  advancing  along  the 
paths  of  mutual  religious  justice. 

Puritanism  presents  another,  a  spiritual  aspect,  under 
which  it  has  exercised  an  influence  more  vigorous  and 
salutary  than  it  has  done  in  any  other  way.  It  laid 
hold  on  thousands,  not  only  by  simple  methods  of 
religious  worship  which  commended  themselves  to  the 
plain  understanding,  and  the  unsophisticated  taste  of 
Anglo-Saxon  people,  but  by  its  emphatic  exhibition 
of  the  truths  of  Christianity  as  a  redemptive  system, 
full  of  the  love  of  God  to  sinful  men,  commending  itself 
to  humble  and  sorrow-stricken  hearts.  In  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  which  Puritanism  prominently  exhibited  as 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  mankind,  lay  the  secret  of  its 
greatest  success,  and  the  key  to  its  noblest  results.  As 
a  spiritual  power  it  had  been  strong  under  Elizabeth 
and  the  Stuarts  ;  but  its  conflicts  in  war,  its  entrance 
into  the  Court,  its  elevation  to  the  throne,  defaced 
somewhat  its  spiritual  beauty,  and  impaired  in  a 
measure  its  spiritual  force.  The  most  favourable 
aspects  of  Puritanism  are  not  found  in  the  history  of 
the  Civil  Wars,  and  of  the  Commonwealth.  As  with 
Christianity  in  general,  as  with  Protestantism  at  large. 


12  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

SO  with  the  system  now  under  consideration.  Not  in 
the  palace  of  Constantine  do  we  discover  the  best 
specimens  of  Gospel  piety ;  not  in  the  Courts  of 
English  and  German  sovereigns  do  we  see  the  work- 
ings of  the  Reformed  Faith  to  most  advantage  ;  and 
not  at  Whitehall  must  we  watch  for  the  fairest  visions 
of  Puritan  life.  Our  religion,  in  its  best  forms,  is  no 
doubt  essentially  a  genial  social  power,  healing,  con- 
structive, conservative  ;  such  I  believe  it  will  prove  itself 
to  be  in  the  Church  of  the  future,  but  in  the  Church  of 
the  past,  it  has  shown  itself  purest  and  strongest  when 
contending  against  opposition,  when  passing  through 
scenes  of  suffering,  when  grappling  with  the  evils  of 
society,  and  when  informing  and  animating  individual 
souls.  Persecution  has  been  to  piety  what  the  furnace 
is  to  the  potter's  clay  ;  it  has  burnt  in,  it  has  brought 
out,  its  richest  colours.  The  Huguenots  appear  to 
much  greater  advantage  in  the  defeats  which  they 
endured  than  in  the  victories  which  they  won  ;  the 
peasantry  in  their  cottages  are  more  to  be  admired 
than  the  nobles  in  their  chateaux.  The  history  of 
successful  battles  fought,  or  of  courageous  resistance 
made,  by  the  French  Protestants,  and  the  story  of 
Henry  of  Navarre  and  his  Courtiers  even  before  his 
reconciliation  with  Rome,  read  not  so  well  as  does  the 
record  of  men  of  the  same  class  who  were  burnt  at  the 
stake,  or  who  were  sent  to  the  galleys,  or  who  were 
exiled  from  their  country.  So  also  the  chief  moral 
charm  of  Puritanism  is  found,  not  in  the  successes  of 
statesmen  and  soldiers  ;  not  in  Pym's  debates  and 
majorities  ;  not  in  Cromwell's  charges  and  laurels  ;  but 
in  the  deaths  of  Barrow  and  Greenwood,  and  in  the 
tortures  of  Leighton  and  Burton ;  and,  if  we  may 
anticipate,    in   the   ejection,   the   wanderings    and  the 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  ij 

imprisonment  of  Howe,  and  Heywood,  and  Baxter. 
On  the  same  principle  the  quiet,  earnest,  and  exemplary 
lives  of  the  middle-class  Puritans  did  more  than  any- 
thing else,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Civil  Wars,  to 
give  ascendancy  to  their  cause  ;  and  after  the  Restora- 
tion, to  recover  its  character,  and  promote  its  progress. 
Puritanism,  when  once  more  separated  from  the  State,, 
returned  to  the  old  and  better  paths  of  confessorship 
and  humiliation  ;  and  thrown  back  upon  itself  and 
upon  God,  it  became,  as  of  yore,  a  spiritual  agency  of 
the  most  potent  kind.  The  theological  books  it  pro- 
duced, the  devoted  characters  it  formed,  and  the  pious 
memories  it  handed  down  to  posterity,  have  created  an 
influence  embracing  within  its  reach  both  England  and 
America.  The  effect  of  its  works,  examples,  and 
traditions  have  never  perished  in  Dissenting  Churches 
and  families  ;  and  beyond  these  circles,  it  has  manifestly 
told  upon  the  Christian  world.  It  contributed  to  the 
great  revival  of  religion  which  arose  within  the  pale  of 
the  Establishment  during  the  last  century ;  and  from 
an  earlier  period  than  that,  down  to  the  present  day, 
its  perpetuated  spiritual  power  has  been  deeply  felt, 
and  gratefully  acknowledged  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 

Such  was  the  system  of  Puritanism,  politically,  eccle- 
siastically, spiritually ;  such  were  some  of  the  causes 
which  produced  changes  in  it  at  the  era  of  the  Restora- 
tion. What  it  was,  and  what  it  did  at  that  period  and 
afterwards,  remains  to  be  related.  We  are  to  consider 
what,  in  its  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  and  other 
forms,  it  became  ;  what  it  endured  of  direct  persecution 
and  of  indirect  social  wrong  ;  and  what  it  achieved  in 
works  of  faith,  and  love,  and  zeal.  We  are  to  trace  its 
social  influence  in  the  retirements  of  English  life ;  its 


H 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 


new  political  influence  on  the  side  of  liberty  ;  the  germs 
of  after-thought  which  it  planted  ;  the  stones  of  reform 
and  improvement  which  it  laid.  Also,  and  this  will 
occupy  a  still  wider  space,  we  are  to  mark  how  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  England  rose  out  of  her  ruins, 
and  the  Establishment  became  once  more  Anglican. 
All  this,  in  the  minute  grades  of  the  process,  together 
with  the  form  of  the  re-edification  ;  the  policy  of  its 
new  builders ;  their  relations  and  conduct  towards 
their  Nonconformist  brethren  ;  the  intermingling  of 
ecclesiastical  and  political  events  ;  the  Church  develop- 
ments ;  the  theological  controversies  ;  and  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  period,  amongst  Conformists  and  Noncon- 
formists— much  of  it,  on  each  side,  beautiful,  some  of 
it,  on  both  sides,  marred — it  is  my  arduous  task 
faithfully  to  unfold. 

Richard  Cromwell  succeeded  his  father  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  realm,  as  if  his  family  had  from  of  old 
occupied  the  throne.  What  renders  this  fact  the  more 
remarkable  is  that  the  new  ruler  had  never  been  a 
public  character,  except  so  far  as  holding  offices  of 
honour  might  be  considered  as  giving  him  that  appear- 
ance. He  had  spent  a  quiet  and  almost  unnoticed  life, 
in  the  retirement  of  Hursley  Park,  in  Hampshire,  an 
inheritance  he  had  acquired  by  marriage,  and  there,  in 
the  society  of  neighbouring  Cavaliers,  he  had  enjoyed 
the  sports  of  a  country  gentleman.  Imbued  with 
loyalty  to  the  Stuarts,  notwithstanding  his  father's 
position  ;  conforming  to  the  Established  religion,  with- 
out any  sympathy  in  his  father's  opinions  ;  indeed, 
destitute  of  deep  religious  feeling  of  any  kind,  as  well 
as  of  genius,  enthusiasm,  and  force  of  will,  he  stood 
ill-prepared  to  sustain  the  enormous  responsibility 
which  now  fell  upon  his  shoulders. 


1658.]         THE   CHURCH  OF   THE  RESTORATION.  15 

Instantly  after  Oliver's  death,  on  the  3rd  of  Septem- 
ber, the  Council  assembled  and  acknowledged  Richard's 
title.  All  the  chief  cities  and  towns  in  the  dominion 
were  informed  that  the  late  Protector,  "  according  to 
the  petition  and  advice  in  his  life-time,"  had  declared 
his  "  noble  and  illustrious  son  to  be  his  successor." 
The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London  proceeded  to 
Whitehall  with  condolences  and  congratulations  ;  and 
the  new  Protector,  in  their  presence,  took  the  Oath 
of  the  Constitution,  administered  to  him  by  Fiennes,  a 
Lord  Commissioner  of  the  Great  Seal.  Manton  offered 
prayer,  and  blessed  His  Highness,  "his  council,  armies, 
and  people."  *  A  proclamation  of  Richard's  accession 
throughout  the  country  immediately  followed  ;  and, 
according  to  a  custom  which  had  originated  under  the 
Protectorate,  addresses,  overflowing  with  adulation, 
poured  in  from  various  public  bodies.  Foreign  courts, 
too,  acknowledged  Richard's  title,  and  honoured 
his  father's  memory.  "  It  is  a  sad  thing  to  say,"  re- 
marks Cosin,  writing  from  Paris,  "but  here  in  the 
French  Court,  they  wear  mourning  apparel  for  Crom- 
well ;  yea,  the  King  of  France,  and  all  do  it."t  Richard's 
chief  councillors  were  Lord  Broghill,  the  Royalist,  who 
had  been  a  faithful  servant  to  Oliver  ;  Dr.  Wilkins, 
Warden  of  Wadham  College,  Oxford,  married  to  the 
late  Protector's  sister  ;  and  Colonel  Philip  Jones,  one 
of  the  Protectorate  Lords.  The  union  between  these 
councillors  sufficiently  indicates  that  no  extreme  eccle- 
siastical policy  could  be  contemplated  ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, in  the  month  of  November,  a  Declaration  appeared, 
couched  in  liberal  terms,  conceding  general  toleration, 

*  "  Cromwellian  Diary,"  III.  ;  "  Int."  v.  viii. 
t   Letter  to  Hyde,  Cosin's  "Works,"  IV.  465. 


1 6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

and    promising   to    godly    ministers  "their    dues    and 
liberties,  according  to  law."  * 

Richard  was  tolerant  both  from  disposition  and 
policy  ;  owing  to  circumstances,  he  sympathized  more 
with  Presbyterians  than  with  Independents  ;  perhaps 
he  would  not  have  been  adverse  to  some  kind  of 
modified  Episcopacy.  Moderate  people,  of  different 
parties,  therefore,  looked  kindly  upon  his  sway  ;  but 
it  soon  appeared  that  the  embers  of  discontent  were 
smouldering  still.  Scarcely  had  he  worn  his  title  one 
month,  when  his  brother,  Henry  Cromwell,  wrote  in  an 
alarming  tone  to  Lord  General  Fleetwood,  who  had 
married  Henry's  sister.  "  Remember,"  he  says,  "  what 
has  always  befallen  imposing  spirits.  Will  not  the 
loins  of  an  imposing  Independent  or  Anabaptist  be  as 
heavy  as  the  loins  of  an  imposing  Prelate  or  Presbyter  } 
And  is  it  a  dangerous  error,  that  dominion  is  founded 
in  grace  when  it  is  held  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
a  sound  principle  when  it  is  held  by  the  Fifth  Mon- 
archy 1 "  "  Let  it  be  so  carried,  that  all  the  people  of 
God,  though  under  different  forms,  yea,  even  those 
whom  you  count  zvithont,  may  enjoy  their  birthright 
and  civil  liberty,  and  that  no  one  party  may  tread 
upon  the  neck  of  another."  t  Henry  Cromwell  feared 
lest  certain  well-known  unquiet  spirits,  now  that  his 
sire's  strong  hand  had  crumbled  into  dust,  should  disturb 
the  peace  of  the  country,  and,  under  pretence. of  uni- 
versal freedom,  throw  everything  into  confusion.  He 
had  reasons  for  his  fear. 


*  "  Proclamation  for  the  better  encouraging  of  Godly  Ministers," 
Nov.  25th.  In  the  notes  of  the  speech  of  the  Protector  to  the 
Officers  of  the  Army  (Thurloe,  VII.  447),  "  Liberty  of  Conscience, 
as  we  are  Christians,"  is  one  of  the  heads. 

t  Thurloe,  MI.  454. 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  17 

Richard  called  a  Parliament,  which  met  on  the  27th 
of  January,  1659.  Writs  were  issued  to  "rotten 
boroughs  ; "  representatives  were  summoned  from  Scot- 
land and  Ireland  ;  means  not  constitutional,  so  it  is 
said,  were  employed  to  secure  a  House  of  Commons 
favourable  to  the  Court  party.  The  majority  consisted 
of  Presbyterians,  to  whom  the  Protector  chiefly  looked 
for  support ;  but  old  political  Independents  also 
secured  their  election,  and  Sir  Henry  Vane  and  Sir 
Arthur  Haselrig,  excluded  by  the  old  Protector,  now, 
under  the  milder  sway  of  the  new  one,  took  their  seats 
in  St.  Stephen's  Chapel*  They  evaded  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  boldly  advocated  Republicanism. 

Parliament  opened  with  a  sermon  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  by  Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin,  the  Independent, 
w^ho  preached  from  Psalm  Ixxxv.  10,  advocating  liberty 
of  conscience,  and  exhorting  to  union  and  peace.  To' 
that  venerable  edifice,  ever  identified  with  our  national 
history,  His  Highness,  attended  by  the  Privy  Council, 
by  the  Officers  of  State,  and  by  the  Gentlemen  of  the 
Household,  "  passed  by  water  in  a  stately  new-built 
galley,  and  landed  at  the  Parliament  Stairs."  Lord 
Cleypole,  Master  of  the  Horse,  bore  the  Sword  of 
State  before  Richard,  who  in  the  Abbey  sat  surrounded 
by  his  Lords  ;  the  Commons,  much  to  their  displeasure, 
as  afterwards  expressed  by  them,  being  seated  here 
and  there  ;  "  sparsini','  as  a  contemporary  chronicle 
discontentedly  states.f  The  Protector  concluded  his 
opening  speech  in  the  Painted  Chamber,  by  recom- 
mending to  the  care  of  Parliament,  first,  "the  people 
of  God  in  these  nations,  with  their  concernments  ;  '* 
secondly,  "  the  good  and  necessary  v/ork  of  reformation, 

*  Ludlow,  II.  618. 
t  "  Cromwellian  Diary,"  III.  i. 
VOL  III.  ^ 


i8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  T. 

both  in  manners  and  in  the  administration  of  justice  ; " 
thirdly,  the  Protestant  cause  abroad,  which  seemed  at 
that  time  to  be  in  some  danger  ;  and  lastly,  the  main- 
tenance of  love  and  duty  among  themselves.* 

After  a  rather  ill-tempered  discussion,  Reynolds, 
Manton,  Calamy,  and  Owen,  three  Presbyterians  and 
one  Independent,  were  appointed  by  the  Commons, 
"  two  to  preach  and  two  to  pray,"  on  the  occasion  of 
the  succeeding  fast ;  and  it  is  curious  to  find  that  in 
this  instance  the  service  took  place,  not  at  St.  Margaret's 
Church,  but  within  the  walls  of  the  House,  to  avoid,  as 
alleged,  the  inconvenience  of  a  promiscuous  auditory, 
when  "  good  men  wanted  the  liberty,  which  it  was  fit 
they  should  have,"  to  rebuke  and  reprove  "  the  faults 
and  miscarriages  of  their  superiors."  "Ill-affected 
persons  came  frequently  to  such  exercises,  not  out  of 
any  zeal  or  devotion,  but  to  feel  the  pulse  of  the  State, 
and  to  steer  their  counsels  and  aff"airs  accordingly."  f 
The  desirableness  of  sometimes  giving  admonition  and 
advice  to  bodies  of  men,  unembarrassed  by  the  presence 
of  critical  and  alienated  spectators,  still  felt  by  many, 
was  felt  then. 

The  debates  mainly  turned  upon  fundamental  ques- 
tions of  government.  In  them  little  appears  relative  to 
religion.  Complaints  were  made  of  the  Commissioners 
for  trying  ministers,  and  of  the  mismanagement  of 
funds  for  the  support  of  the  latter.  Maynard,  and 
others,  affirmed  that  souls  were  starved  ;  that  the  sheep 
were  committed  to  the  wolf ;  that  scandalous  preachers 
had  scandalous  judges ;  that  Welsh  Churches  were 
unsupplied  except  by  "  a  few  grocers,  or  such  persons  ;  " 
that  "  dippers  and  creepers  "  were  found  in  the  Army  ; 

*  "Cromwellian  Diary,"  III.  lo. 
t  Ibid.,  13,  Jan.  2Sth. 


1G59.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  19 

and  that  Jesuits  had  been  in  the  House.  "  See,"  ex- 
claimed one  speaker,  "  what  congregations  we  had  in 
'43,  and  what  now  !  It  is  questioned  whether  we  have 
a  Church  in  England  ;  questioned,  I  doubt,  whether 
Scripture  or  rule  of  life  is  in  England."  *  In  the  Grand 
Committee,  a  Bill  was  ordered  to  be  drawn  for  revising 
Acts  touching  the  Prayer  Book  ;  and  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  Quakers,  Papists,  Socinians,  and  Jews.f  Just 
before,  a  member  named  Nevile  had  been  denounced 
and  threatened  with  prosecution  as  an  atheist  and 
blasphemer,  for  saying  that  the  reading  of  Cicero 
affected  him  more  than  the  reading  of  the  Bible.^ 

These  proceedings,  together  with  a  declaration  a  few 
weeks  afterwards,  which  spoke  of  blasphemies  and 
heresies  against  God,  and  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  Scriptures ;  of  the  advocates  of  an  inward  light ; 
also  of  atheism,  profaneness,  and  Sabbath-breaking,§ — 
indicate  the  revival  of  Presbyterian  influence,  and  the 
renewed  activity  of  Presbyterian  zeal.  On  the  other 
hand.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  who  had  been  so  earnest  in 
supporting  the  Covenant,  had  now  changed  his  mind 
on  that  subject,  maintaining  that  the  compact  had 
become  invalid  through  what  he  called  the  Scotch  in- 
vasion of  England,  meaning  by  this  the  invasion  which 
ended  in  the  defeat  of  Worcester.  ||  In  the  same  spirit 
exceptions  were  taken  by  a  Committee  to  the  harsh 
treatment  of  Fifth  Monarchy  men  ;  and  some  of  that 
class  were  referred  to  with  respect.^  In  these  Parlia- 
mentary  allusions    to    religious    questions,    the    chief 

*  "Cromwellian  Diary,"  III.  83,  138,  Feb.  5th. 
t  Ibid.,  403,  Feb.  21st. 
i  Guizot's  "  Richard  Cromwell,  etc."  I.  103. 
§  "  Cromwellian  Diary,"  IV.  328,  April  2nd. 
II  Ibid.,  III.  177,  Feb.  9th. 
T  Ibid.,  448.  Feb.  22nd  ;  494,  Feb.  26th. 


20  RELIGION  IlSf  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

allusions  of  the  kind  which  occurred  about  this  time, 
we  discern  the  flow  of  two  opposite  currents  of  feeling. 
Other  debates  issued  in  important  consequences. 
Republicans  and  the  advocates  of  a  mixed  Government 
came  into  collision  upon  their  particular  points  of  dif- 
ference. Sir  Arthur  Haselrig  openly  arraigned  the 
acts  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  condemned  the  dismissal 
of  the  Long  Parliament  Haselrig  proclaimed  England 
to  be  a  theocracy.  "God,"  said  he,  "is  the  King  of 
this  Great  Island."  He  acknowledged  no  power  under 
God  but  that  of  the  Parliament  ;  the  Protector  he 
utterly  ignored.  Scott  and  Ludlow  also  gloried  in 
their  regicidal  deeds.  Vane,  in  a  calmer  strain,  upheld 
Republicanism.  On  the  other  side  the  friends  of  the 
Protectorate  contended  for  the  "  petition  and  advice  " 
as  "  the  Boaz  and  Jachin  of  Solomon's  temple."  The 
hand  of  Providence,  they  said,  had  set  up  the  Protector, 
Richard.  He  was  Protector  before  the  House  as- 
sembled ;  the  House  had  owned  him  in  that  capacity, 
and  had  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance.  A  Royalist, 
amidst  the  expression  of  these  opinions,  exclaimed, 
"  I  am  for  the  Constitution  we  lived  under,  for  building 
up  the  ancient  fabric."*  Thus  early,  certain  of  the 
senators  of  England  showed  their  determination  to 
plunge  at  once  into  the  vortex  of  a  new  revolution. 

Questions  touching  foreign  affairs,  the  Army,  and 
finance  came  under  debate  at  the  same  time ;  the  Re- 
publicans, led  by  Vane,  deploring,  in  a  spirit  of  infatua- 
tion, the  late  peace  with  Holland,  and  wishing  that  the 
war  had  been  perpetuated  until  the  Dutch  had  been 
conquered,  and  forced  into  union  with  this  country. 
They  contended  also  that  the  control  of  the  military 
should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Parliament,  not 
*  "  Cromwellian  Diary,"  III.  87,  ct  seq.,  Feb.  7th  and  9th. 


1659.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  21 

in  the  hands  of  the  Protector  ;  and  they  inveighed 
against  the  extravagance  of  the  Government,  declaring 
that  the  deficiency  in  the  revenue  would  produce  a 
national  debt  enough  to  sink  the  country  in  ruin.  But 
what  proved  of  still  more  serious  consequence,  the 
Republicans  not  only  canvassed,  but  set  aside  certain 
acts  of  the  late  Protector.  Oliver  had  left  behind  him 
many  State  prisoners,  committed  for  political  offences. 
They  were  now  liberated.  Major-General  Overton,  one 
of  these  prisoners,  appeared  before  the  House  as  a 
martyr,  being  escorted  on  his  return  from  imprison- 
ment, like  Burton,  Prynne,  and  others,  nearly  twenty 
years  before,  by  "four  or  five  hundred  men  on  horse- 
back, and  a  vast  crowd  bearing  branches  of  laurel."  * 

Richard  could  not  be  held  responsible  for  the  arbitrary 
proceedings  of  Oliver.  He  had  not  been  privy  to  his 
father's  deeds  ;  he  had  not  entered  into  his  father's 
purposes ;  he  had  not  adopted  his  father's  opinions  ;  he 
had  befriended  the  Royalists,  and  was  still  supposed 
to  have  sympathies  with  them  ;  at  the  same  time  also 
his  moderation  and  urbanity  attracted  towards  him 
some  of  his  father's  companions  and  allies.  "  Though 
perhaps  you  will  not  believe  it,"  wrote  Broderick  to 
Hyde,  "  they  really  are  more  affectionate  to  the  present 
than  the  late  Protector,  whose  temper  so  differed  from 
theirs  that  it  was  usually  averse  to  the  deliberate  caution 
they  advised,  running  hazards  they  trembled  to  think  of 
upon  a  sudden  violent  suggestion,  of  which  they  could 
give  themselves  no  account ;  which  precipices  this  young 
Prince  doth  prudently,  as  well  as  naturally  avoid,  and 
is  thereby  rendered  more  agreeable  to  those  wary  states- 

*  Guizot's  "Richard  Cromwell  and  the  Restoration,"  I.  91, 
March  i6th.  No  other  historian  has  so  patiently  traced  the  steps 
by  which  the  Stuarts  were  restored  as  this  eminent  Frenchman. 


22  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

men."  *  Yet  personal  popularity  did  not  suffice  to 
preserve  him  from  the  disaffection  of  Republicans,  and 
the  discontent  and  intrigues  of  Arrny  officers.  Late 
in  the  month  of  March,  Fleetwood  and  Desborough 
reported  to  Richard  that  agitation  prevailed  amongst 
the  troops,  that  they  complained  of  not  having  received 
their  pay,  that  they  were  angry  at  the  conduct  of  Par- 
liament towards  some  of  their  old  generals,  and  that 
these  circumstances  afforded  encouragement  to  the 
Cavalier  party.  The  two  officers  proceeded  to  employ 
these  facts  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  advice  that 
His  Highness  should  immediately  summon  a  Council 
of  Officers  to  consider  the  state  of  affairs.  Such  a 
Council  was  held  ;  and,  after  prayer,  by  Dr.  Owen, 
deliberations  commenced.  Desborough  recommended 
the  application  to  the  Army  of  a  political  test,  the  test 
to  be  approval  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  The 
proposition  shocked  the  Lords  Howard  and  Falcon- 
bridge.  Broghill  suggested  a  different  method,  that 
every  one  should  be  turned  out  of  the  Army  who 
would  not  swear  allegiance  to  the  Protectorate,  a  pro- 
position supported  by  Whalley  and  Goffe.  At  last  it 
was  resolved  to  separate  the  command  of  the  Army 
from  the  civil  power  ;  a  resolution  afterwards  presented 
to  His  Highness,  who  forwarded  it  to  the  House  of 
Commons.  Such  discussions  only  served  to  widen  the 
breach  between  the  House  and  the  Army,  in  the  end 
diminishing  the  influence  of  the  former,  and  leaving  it 
in  a  position  of  weakness,  so  as  to  compel  its  submis- 
sion to  the  assumptions  of  the  latter.  The  resolution 
sent  to  the  Protector,  and  by  him  forwarded  to  the 
Commons,  tended  to  throw  the  greatest  influence  into 
the  hands  of  the  officers,  and  to  promote  Desborough's 
*  Clarendon's  "State  Papers,"  III.  440,  March  iSth. 


1659.]         THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  23 

Republican  views.  Petitions  from  the  Army  followed 
these  proceedings,  the  soldiers  saying-,  "  Because  our 
consciences  bear  us  witness  that  we  dipped  our  hands 
in  blood  in  that  cause  ;  and  the  blood  of  many  thousands 
hath  been  shed  by  our  immediate  hands  under  your 
command  in  that  quarrel,  we  are  amazed  to  think  of 
the  account  that  we  must  render  at  the  great  and 
terrible  day  of  the  Lord,  if  by  your  silence  the  freedom 
of  these  nations  should  be  lost,  and  returned  into  the 
hands  of  that  family,  which  God  hath  so  eminently 
appeared  against  in  His  many  signal  providences  little 
less  than  miracles."  * 

The  Commons,  although  weak,  assumed  the  sem- 
blance of  strength,  and  upon  the  1 8th  of  April  resolved 
that  no  Council  of  Officers  should  be  held  without  per- 
mission of  the  Protector  and  the  Parliament ;  and  that 
no  one  should  have  command  in  the  Army  or  Navy 
who  did  not  engage  to  leave  the  two  Houses  uninter- 
rupted in  their  deliberations.  The  Protector,  still  more 
feeble  than  Parliament,  proceeded  to  dissolve  the 
Council  ;  the  officers  asserted  their  authority  by  con- 
tinuing to  meet  for  conference.  As  it  was  in  the 
father's  days  so  it  was  in  the  son's  :  when  argument 
failed  violence  took  its  place.  Violence,  like  that  which 
had  been  employed  by  Oliver  against  the  Parliament, 
was  now  threatened  against  Richard  by  the  Army. 
The  officers,  clutching  at  their  old  weapons,  seeing 
how  things  were  likely  to  proceed,  fearing  the  Presby- 
terian ascendency,  and  the  destruction  of  their  liberties, 
determined  to  put  an  end  to  the  sitting  of  the  two 
Houses;  and  told  His  Highness  that  if  he  did  not 
dismiss  them  he  might  expect  to  be  dismissed  himself. 

*  This  petition  to  Richard  followed  the  humble  representation 
presented  on  the  6th  of  April. 


24  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

Richard  was  no  soldier,  and  had  not,  like  Oliver,  secured 
the  attachment  of  the  military,  so  that  resistance  by  him 
to  martial  chiefs  could  avail  nothing.  He,  therefore, 
allowed  the  Parliament  to  be  dissolved  by  Commission, 
upon  the  22nd  of  April,  After  this  act  had  been  ac- 
complished, not  without  opposition  from  some  members, 
the  party  in  power  summoned  to  the  resumption  of 
their  trust,  such  of  the  Long  Parliament  as  had  con- 
tinued to  sit  until  the  year  1653.  They  amounted  in 
number  to  ninety-one  ;  out  of  these  forty-two  obeyed 
the  new  order,  and  took  their  places  on  the  7th  of 
May.  Fourteen  of  the  old  Presbyterians,  including 
Prynne,*  who  had  sat  in  St.  Stephen's  before  Pride's 
purge,  w^ere  refused  admittance.  Upon  the  13th  of 
May  the  heads  of  the  Army  presented  a  petition,  in 
which  they  proposed  to  men  whom  they  addressed  as 
rulers,  but  who  were  in  fact  servants,  that  religious 
liberty  should,  as  in  the  days  of  Oliver,  continue  to  be 
conceded  to  all  orthodox  believers  (Papists  and  Pre- 
latists  being  distinctly  excepted) ;  that  a  godly  ministry 
should  be  everywhere  maintained  ;  and  that  the  univer- 
sities and  schools  of  learning  should  be  countenanced 
and  reformed.!  Gleams  of  Presbyterian  influence  dis- 
appeared ;  the  broad  ecclesiastical  policy  of  Oliver 
again  resumed  the  ascendant. 

A  new  Council  of  State  was  formed,  and  the  names 
of  Vane  and  Haselrig  once  more  prominently  appeared, 
together  with  those  of  Whitelocke  and  Fleetwood,  the 
one  a  legal  cipher,  the  other  a  military  tool.  Fleetwood 
occupied  Wallingford  House,  which  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Admiralty,  the  birthplace  of  the  second 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  the  residence  of  the  infamous 

*  Prynne  got  in  for  a  few  hours,  and  had  an  angry  ahercation 
with  Haselrig  and  Vane.  t  "  i^^""!-  Hist.,"  UI.  1553. 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  25 

Countess  of  Essex.  Here  it  was,  from  the  roof  of  the 
mansion,  then  occupied  by  the  Earl  of  Peterborough, 
that  Archbishop  Ussher  had  swooned  at  the  sight  of 
Charles'  execution  ;  and  here  Fleetwood,  who  from  his 
connection  with  the  Cromwells  on  the  one  side,  and 
with  the  Army  on  the  other,  now  possessed  more  power 
than  any  other  person,  gathered  together  his  brother 
officers  for  conference.  Fleetwood  was  a  pious  and 
respectable  Independent,*  a  sincere  patriot,  a  Repub- 
lican only  in  a  qualified  sense,  willing  to  concede  to  a 
Protector  large  administrative  authority.  He  was  not 
without  ambition,  although  he  had  prudence  enough  to 
curb  it  ;  yet  neither  by  gifts  of  nature,  force  of  character, 
nor  study  and  experience,  was  he  a  man  fitted  to  deal 
with  existing  emergencies.  He  had  no  original  genius, 
being  born  to  follow,  not  to  lead.  He  helped  to  pull 
down  the  Protectorate,  and  to  dethrone  his  brother-in- 
law,  but  he  had  no  gift  for  building  up  any  better  order 
of  things.  He  could  aid  the  destructive  movements  of 
Vane  and  Haselrig  ;  but  he  had  no  more  of  the  faculty 
of  constructiveness  than  they. 

John  Howe,  who,  in  the  month  of  May,  was  residing 
at  Whitehall  after  an  absence  of  some  months,  saw  and 
lamented  the  condition  of  affairs.  The  "army-men," 
he  says,  under  pretence  of  zeal  for  the  interests  of 
religious  liberty  were  seeking  their  own  ends,  and  were 
for  that  purpose  drawing  to  themselves  "wild-headed 
persons  of  all  sorts."  "  Such  persons,"  he  adds,  "  as 
are  now  at  the  head  of  affairs  will  blast  religion,  if  God 
prevent  not."     "I    know  some  leading   men   are   not 

*  Of  the  popularity  of  Fleetwood  amongst  "  Anabaptists  and 
other  sectaries,"  and  of  the  importance  attributed  to  him  by 
lookers  on,  there  are  illustrations  in  the  correspondence  of  the 
French  Ambassador,— Guizot,  I.  246. 


26  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  T. 

Christians.  Religion  is  lost  out  of  England,  farther 
than  as  it  can  creep  into  corners.  Those  in  power,  who 
are  friends  to  it,  will  no  more  suspect  these  persons 
than  their  own  selves."*  These  are  not  the  words  of  a 
party-man  ;  and  they  show  that  whatever  might  be  the 
piety  of  Fleetwood,  and  the  purity  of  Vane,  there  were 
persons  of  a  different  character  who  employed  them  as 
tools  for  selfish  ends.  In  the  same  letter,  Howe  speaks 
in  favourable  terms  of  Richard,  whom  he  must  have 
known  well.  The  disinterestedness,  and  even  patriotism 
of  the  Protector  appeared  in  his  resignation  of  power. 
"  He  resolved  to  venture  upon  it  himself,  rather  than 
suffer  it  to  be  taken  with  more  hazard  to  the  country 
by  others,"  and  he  awakens  our  sympathy  by  his  own 
truthful  words,  that  "  he  was  betrayed  by  those  whom 
he  most  trusted."  He  quitted  Whitehall,  with  trunks 
full  of  addresses,  which  contained,  as  he  humorously 
remarked,  "  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  all  the  good  people 
of  England."  More  at  home  in  the  hunting-field  than 
in  the  cabinet,  he,  after  residing  abroad  for  a  time, 
spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in  his  native  land  as  a  country 
gentleman  ;  and  died  at  Cheshunt,  July  the  12th,  17 12, 
saying  to  his  daughter,  "  Live  in  love  :  I  am  going  to 
the  God  of  love."  t  He  lies  buried  in  Hursley  Church, 
where  he  regularly  worshipped  during  his  residence  in 
the  parish.  Within  the  same  walls,  by  a  coincidence 
which  will  be  often  noticed  in  future  days,  there  now 
repose  the  remains  of  a  holy  man  and  a  great  poet, 
whose  sympathies  never  seem  to  have  reached  the  fallen 
Protector  during  a  ministry,  in  that  place,  of  thirty 
years4     The  power  of  the  Cromw^ell  family  came  to  an 

*  "  Howe's  Life,"  by  Rogers,  94. 

t  Rogers,  91  ;  Noble's  "Protectorate  House,"  I.  172,  180,  176. 

X  Noticed  in  an  article  on    Keble  in  Maciiiinan's  Magazine, 

for  March,  1869.     Baxter  speaks  favourably  of  Richard  Cromwell. 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  27 

end  upon  the  dissolution  of  Richard's  parliament, 
except  that  Fleetwood  was  acknowledged  by  the  Army 
as  Lieutenant-general.  Lord  Falconbridge,  and  also 
the  Lords  Broghill  and  Howard  retired  into  the 
country  ;  and,  as  the  Protectorate  had  vanished,  they 
prepared  to  welcome  the  restoration  of  Monarchy. 

Leaving  Whitehall  we  return  to  Wallingford  House. 
Fleetwood,  being  an  Independent,  civil  affairs  being 
entangled  with  such  as  were  ecclesiastical,  and  the 
interests  of  religion  being  so  completely  involved  in  the 
political  changes  of  the  day,  a  fact  which  justifies  so 
much  being  said  about  them  in  an  Ecclesiastical 
History,  he  and  Desborough,  who  sympathized  with 
him,  invited  to  their  councils  Dr.  Owen,  the  Indepen- 
dent, and  Dr.  Manton,  the  Presbyterian.  A  story  is 
told  of  the  former,  to  the  effect,  that,  at  Wallingford 
House,  he  had  prayed  for  the  downfall  of  Richard,  so 
as  to  be  heard  by  Manton,  who  stood  outside  the  door. 
It  is  further  stated  that  Owen  had  gathered  a  Church 
there  ;  and  that  in  one  of  its  assemblies  a  determination 
had  been  formed  to  compel  Richard  to  dissolve  his 
Parliament.*  The  Independent  Divine  denied  that  he 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  setting  up,  or  the  pulling 
down  of  Richard  ;  and  it  has  been  also  denied  that  he 
gathered  a  Church  in  Wallingford  House.  Whatever 
might  be  the  extent  of  Owen's  political  interference  at 
that  crisis,  and  whether  or  not  he  gathered  a  Church 

His  wife,  who  died  in  1676,  wliilst  he  was  abroad,  is  spoken  of  as 
a  prudent,  godiv,  practical  Christian.  It  appears  from  one  of  his 
letters,  that,  after  the  Protectorate,  she  "  wanted  some  scholar  or 
godly  man  to  reside  at  Hursley,  to  minister  spiritual  consolation 
under  her  present  sorrows."     (Noble,  I.  343-) 

*  Neal  (IV.  209;  relates  this,  and  thinks  the  story  probable  ; 
but  Orme,  in  his  "  Life  of  Owen,"  p.  213,  disputes  it.  Respecting- 
what  Baxter  says  about  Owen  ("Life  and  Times,"  I.  loi)  see 
"  Historical  Account  of  my  own  Life,"  by  Calamy,  I.  378. 


2S  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

there,  certainly  at  the  time  one  existed  upon  the  spot. 
The  Records  of  the  Congregational  Church  at  Yar- 
mouth indicate  that  a  religious  society  assembled  at 
Fleetwood's  residence,  and  carried  on  correspondence 
with  other  similar  bodies.*  These  records  shed  light 
upon  a  critical  and  dubious  juncture  in  our  history. 

A  meeting  was  held  at  Norwich,  and  another  \\\ 
London,  respecting  which  Dr.  Owen  wrote  to  Mr. 
Bridge.  The  resolutions  at  which  the  Yarmouth  Church 
arrived,  as  they  were  probably  drawn  up  by  the  eminent 
minister,  who  presided  over  that  community,  may  be 
regarded  as  expressing  the  opinions  of  a  wider  circle 
than  the  provincial  society  which  adopted  them.  First 
— "  We  judge  a  Parliament  to  be  the  expedient  for  the 
preservation  of  the  peace  of  these  nations  ;  and  withal 
we  do  desire  that  all  due  care  be  taken  that  the  Parlia- 
ment be  such  as  may  preserve  the  interest  of  Christ 
and  His  people  in  these  nations."  Secondly — "As 
touching  the  magistrate's  power  in  matters  of  faith 
and  worship  we  have  declared  our  judgment  in  our 
late    Confession  ;  j    and  though  we  greatly  prize  our 

*  As  I  am  not  aware  of  these  important  entries  having  been 
published  by  any  one  else  I  introduce  them  here  : — 

June  7th — "  This  day,"  so  runs  the  record,  "  the  Church 
received  a  letter  from  the  Church  at  Wallingford  House,  desiring 
advice  from  the  Church  what  they  apprehended  was  needful  for 
the  Commonwealth  ;  the  Church  considering  it,  ordered  the 
elders  to  write  to  them,  thanking  them  for  their  love  and  care  of 
them  ;  and  also  desiring  to  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship 
with  them  ;  but  concerning  civil  business  the  Church,  as  a 
Church,  desire  not  to  meddle  with." 

July  loth — "  Ordered  by  the  Church  upon  the  receipt  of  a 
letter  from  the  Church  at  Wahingford  House,  that  Wednesday, 
the  13th  of  July,  should  be  set  apart  to  humble  our  souls  before 
the  Lord,  both  in  regard  of  the  sins  of  the  nation,  and  also  for  our 
own  sins,  as  also  to  seek  the  Lord  for  direction  and  assistance  for 
the  carrying  on  the  Lord's  work  in  the  nation." 

t  This  will  be  noticed  hereafter. 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  29- 

Christian  liberties,  yet  we  profess  our  utter  dislike  and 
abhorrence  of  a  universal  toleration  as  being  contrary 
to  the  mind  of  God  in  His  word."  Thirdly — "  We 
judge  that  the  taking  away  of  tithes  for  maintenance 
of  ministers  until  as  full  a  maintenance  be  equally 
secured,  and  as  legally  settled,  tends  very  much  to  the 
destruction  of  the  ministry  and  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  in  these  nations."  Fourthly — "  It  is  our  desire 
that  countenance  be  not  given,  nor  trust  reposed  in 
the  hands  of  Quakers,  they  being  persons  of  such 
principles  as  are  destructive  to  the  Gospel,  and  incon- 
sistent with  the  peace  of  civil  societies." 

Into  a  miserable  state  must  England  have  drifted 
when  a  congregation  of  Independents,  no  doubt  con- 
taining many  worthy  people,  but  certainly  not  fitted 
to  act  as  a  Council  of  State,  came  to  be  consulted  upon 
the  most  important  public  questions,  and  to  give  their 
opinion  after  this  fashion.  What  the  opinions  of  Dr. 
Owen  were  upon  two  of  the  points  mooted  in  these 
resolutions  we  learn  from  a  short  paper  which  he  wrote 
at  this  time,  and  which  is  preserved  in  his  collected 
works.  There  are  three  questions,  and  he  gives  three 
answers.  The  first  two  relate  to  the  power  of  the 
supreme  magistrate  touching  religion  and  the  worship 
of  God.  Notwithstanding  the  haste  with  which  the 
replies  were  furnished,  they  must  be  considered  as 
expressing  the  writer's  mature  judgnient,  for  the  in- 
terrogatories embody  the  most  pressing  questions  of 
the  time.  To  the  first  query,  whether  the  supreme 
magistrate  in  a  Commonwealth  professing  the  religion 
of  Christ,  may  exert  his  legislative  and  executive  power 
for  furthering  the  profession  of  the  faith  and  worship, 
and  whether  he  ought  to  coerce  or  restrain  such  prin- 
ciples and  practices  as  were  contrary  to  them,  Owen 


so  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

replied  distinctly  in  the  affirmative.  He  supported  his 
affirmation  by  arguments  drawn  from  the  law  and  the 
light  of  nature  ;  from  the  government  of  nations  ;  from 
God's  revealed  institutions  ;  from  the  examples  of  God's 
magistrates  ;  "  from  the  promises  of  Gospel  times  ;  " 
"  from  the  equity  of  Gospel  rules  ; "  from  the  confession 
of  all  Protestant  Churches  ;  and  particularly  from  the 
Savoy  declaration.  Owen  was  asked,  secondly,  whether 
the  supreme  magistrate  might  "  by  laws  and  penalties 
compel  any  one  who  holds  the  Head  Christ  Jesus  to 
subscribe  to  that  confession  of  faith,  and  attend  to  that 
way  of  v/orship  which  he  esteems  incumbent  on  him  to 
promote  and  further."  Restricting  attention  to  those 
described  as  "holding  the  Head,"  the  Independent 
Divine  remarks,  that  though  it  cannot  be  proved  that 
the  magistrate  is  divinely  authorized  to  take  away  the 
lives  of  men  for  their  disbelief,  "  yet  it  doth  not  seem 
to  be  the  duty  of  any,  professing  obedience  to  Jesus 
Christ,  to  make  any  stated  legal  unalterable  provision 
for  their  immunity  who  renounce  Him."  He  decides 
also  that  opinions  of  public  scandal  ought  to  be  re- 
strained, and  not  suffered  to  be  divulged,  either  by 
open  speech  or  by  the  press.  Subsequently,  after  pre- 
mising (to  use  his  own  words)  that  "  the  measure  of 
doctrinal  holding  the  Head,  consists  in  some  few  clear 
fundamental  propositions,"  and  that  men  are  apt  to 
run  to  extremes,  he  finally  concludes  upon  giving  a 
negative  answer  to  their  second  question.  As  to  the 
third  "whether  it  be  convenient  that  the  present  way 
of  the  maintenance  of  ministers  or  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  be  removed  and  taken  away,  or  changed  into 
some  other  provision  ;  "  Owen  vindicates  the  claim  of 
the  ministry  to  temporal  support,  and  places  the  pay- 
ment  of  tithes   upon    a    Divine   basis.     He   declares 


1C59.]         THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  31 

that  to  take  away  "  the  public  maintenance  "  would 
be  "  a  contempt  of  the  care  and  faithfulness  of  God 
towards  His  Church,  and,  in  plain  terms,  downright 
robbery."  * 

A  Church  book  of  the  period  has  thus  afforded  an 
insight  into  certain  political  relations  sustained  by 
Independents  in  the  year  1659.  A  celebrated  historian 
may  next  be  quoted,  in  reference  to  alleged  proceed- 
ings of  a  very  different  nature  on  the  part  of  Baptists. 
Clarendon  relates  a  strange  story  of  overtures  made  to 
Charles  before  the  death  of  Cromwell  by  persons  of 
that  denomination.  He  gives  a  copy  of  an  address  to 
His  Majesty,  as  Charles  is  styled,  signed  by  ten  such 
persons,  in  which  address  occur  violent  lamentations 
over  the  troubles  of  the  times.  Attached  to  it  are  pro- 
posals "  in  order  to  an  happy,  speedy,  and  well-grounded 
peace."  The  document  contains  a  prayer,  that  no  anti- 
Christian  Hierarchy,  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  or  other- 
wise, should  be  created,  and  that  every  one  should  be 
left  at  liberty  to  worship  God  in  such  a  way  and  manner 
as  might  appear  to  them  to  be  agreeable  to  the  mind 
and  will  of  Christ.f  According  to  Clarendon — the 
only  authority  upon  which  we  have  to  depend  in  refer- 
ence to  the  subject — a  curious  letter  accompanied  the 
address  and-  the  proposals  ;  in  which  letter  the  corre- 
spondent alludes  to  a  "worthy  gentleman"  by  whose 
hands  it  was  conveyed,  and  who  being  acquainted  with 
the  circumstances  would  fully  explain  the  case  and 
answer  objections.  He  refers  to  the  subscribers  as 
"  young  proselytes  "  to  the  Royal  cause,  as  needing  to 

*  Owen's  "Works,"  XIX.  385-393. 

t  "Hist,  of  the  Rebellion  "  (Oxford  Edit.,  1843),  855-6.  The 
documents  are  without  date.  They  are  placed  by  Clarendon 
under  the  year  1658. 


32  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

be  driven  "  lento  pede^'  as  being  neither  of  great  families 
or  great  estates,  but  as  capable  of  being  more  service- 
able to  His  Majesty  than  some  whose  names  would 
"  swell  much  bigger  than  theirs."  *  There  is  no  suffi- 
cient reason  for  pronouncing  the  story  an  invention,  or 
the  documents  forgeries  ;  at  any  rate  it  appears  as  if 
Clarendon  believed  in  them  ;  yet  on  the  other  hand 
there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  any  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Baptist  body  ever  concurred  in  any  such 
movement,  the  names  appended  to  the  address  are 
unknown,  and  no  reference  to  the  affair,  that  I  am  aware 
of,  was  ever  made  after  the  Restoration,  either  by 
Baptists  or  any  other  party.  On  the  whole  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  some  few  people,  calling  themselves  Bap- 
tists, disliking  Oliver  Cromwell  and  the  Protectorate, 
and  differing  from  those  ministers  of  their  denomination 
who  held  parish  livings,  might  have  engaged  in  a  cor- 
respondence with  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  Monarchy 
under  certain  conditions,  especially  that  of  unfettered 
toleration.  No  practical  result  followed  these  reported 
overtures.! 

The  Presbyterians  had,  for  the  most  part,  after  the 
death  of  Charles  I.,  preserved  a  sentiment  of  loyalty 
towards  the  House  of  Stuart ;  and  now  that  Richard 
had  fallen,  they  were  eager  for  the  restoration  of 
Monarchy  in  the  person  of  the  exiled  prince.  Presby- 
terian clergymen  animated  and  controlled  this  move- 
ment,  of  which   the    extensive    ramifications    spread 

*  "  Hist,  of  the  RelDcllion,"  857. 

t  Neal  (IV.  195)  alludes  to  this  affair,  and  regards  it  as  an 
artifice  to  get  money  "  out  of  the  poor  King's  purse."  Crosby 
(II.  91)  speaks  of  the  Baptists  as  making  "overtures  to  the  King 
for  his  restoration,"  but  does  not  relate  any  particulars.  The 
modern  historian  of  the  Baptists,  Dr.  Evans,  as  far  as  I  can  find, 
says  nothing  upon  the  subject. 


1659.]         THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  33 

themselves  out  in  secresy  and  caution.  Only  in  Cheshire 
did  any  military  demonstration  occur.  There,  in  the 
month  of  August,  under  Sir  George  Booth,  a  popular 
Presbyterian  of  the  county,  numbers  of  persons  ap- 
peared in  arms  ;  yet,  although  the  object  evidently  was 
to  place  Prince  Charles  on  the  throne  of  his  fathers, 
the  leaders  professed  nothing  more  than  a  desire  to 
secure  the  assembling  of  a  free  Parliament.  The  Pres- 
byterians rejected  the  aid  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and 
but  warily  accepted  the  advances  of  a  Presbyterian 
knight,  Sir  Thomas  Middleton,  because  he  was  known 
to  be  a  Royalist.*  The  rising  proved  unfortunate. 
After  being  hopefully  prosecuted  a  little  while,  it  then 
appeared  that  the  Republicans  under  Lambert  were 
too  strong  for  these  Northern  insurgents.  The  former 
scoured  the  country.  Their  shots  in  some  places  dis- 
turbed the  Presbyterian  communicants  at  the  Lord's 
Supper  ;  their  advances  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Man- 
chester filled  that  town  with  alarm.  Houses  were 
emptied  of  their  valuables  by  the  people  who  were 
anxious  to  hide  them  from  the  enemy. f  Booth  was 
obliged  to  flee  ;  and  to  provide  against  detection  he 
assumed  a  female  disguise,  and  rode  on  a  pillion,  but 
his  awkwardness  in  alighting  from  his  horse  betrayed 
him  ;  and  Middleton,  after  a  brief  resistance  within  the 
walls  of  Chirk  Castle,  capitulated  to  the  foe.  Fleetwood 
now  seemed  the  chief  man  in  England  ;  and  to  him 
certain  Republicans,  who  had  been  desired,  or  as  they 
interpreted  it,  commanded  to  retire  from  the  Council 
of  Officers,  turned  as  to  their  last  hope,  asking  him  in 
a  "  humble  representation  "  full  of  religious  sentiment, 
"  to  remove  the  present  force   upon   the   Parliament, 

*  Lingard,  XI.  156. 

t  Newcome's  "Autobiography,"  I.  117. 
VOL.  III.  D 


34  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  T. 

that  it  might  sit  in  safety  without  interruption."*  Other 
persons  of  more  consequence,  inckiding  Haseh-ig,  fol- 
lowed up  the  appeal  in  a  rather  different  strain,  but 
with  the  same  object,  and  charged  Fleetwood  with  de- 
stroying Parliamentary  authority,  after  the  example  of 
his  father-in-law.f  Sir  Ashley  Cooper  subsequently 
wrote  to  him  in  like  manner,  protesting  against  "  red- 
coats and  muskets  "  as  a  "  non  obstante "  to  national 
laws  and  public  privileges.^ 

Amidst  the  confusion  of  the  period  hope  dawned 
upon  the  persecuted  Episcopalians.  Whether  or  not 
influenced  by  the  death  of  Cromwell,  and  the  foresight 
of  coming  changes  favourable  to  his  own  Church, 
Henry  Thorndike,  the  able  Episcopalian  scholar  and 
divine,  published  in  1659  what  he  called  "An  Epilogue 
to  the  Tragedy  of  the  Church  of  England ; "  a  book 
which,  an  admiring  critic  says,  proved  to  be  in  spirit  a 
prologue  to  the  renewed  life  of  a  Church  more  vigorous 
than  ever !  The  aim  of  the  work  is  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  Episcopal  Church  of  England,  not  by 
any  compromise,  but  by  endeavouring  to  persuade  all 
to  unite  together  on  her  behalf  Looking  at  the  claims 
of  the  Romish  Church  to  immediate  inspiration,  placed 
no  matter  where,  and  to  the  equally  groundless  and 
more  arrogant  claims  of  the  fanatics,  as  Thorndike 
terms  them,  to  individual  inspiration,  he  urges  that 
each  party  should  be  brought  to  admit  themselves 
limited  to  the  sense  of  Scripture  as  expounded  by  the 
primitive  laws  and  faith  of  the  Church.  Thus,  he  says, 
the  ground  of  their  errors  is  cut  away.  With  this 
imaginary   solution   of  the   difficulty,  which  begs   the 

*  Dated  November  i,  1659.     (Thurloe,  VII.  771.) 
t  December  14,  1659.     (Ibid.,  795.) 
t  December  16,  1659.     (Ibid.,  797.) 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  35 

question,  this  calculation  upon  what  is  impossible,  and 
this  triumphant  assurance  of  a  conclusion  based  on 
premises,  which  neither  Papist  nor  Puritan  would 
admit,  the  high,  but  honest  Churchman,  shows  how 
much  he  sympathized  with  the  one  and  how  little  with 
the  other,  and  how  blind  he  was  to  what  surrounded 
him. 

He  expressly  avows  his  approval  of  prayers  for  the 
dead,  of  the  invocation  of  the  Spirit  on  the  elements  of 
the  Eucharist,  and  of  the  practice  of  penance ;  whilst 
he  contends  for  Episcopacy  in  the  Anglican  sense,  and 
wishes  to  see  Presbyters  restored  to  their  ancient 
position  of  a  council  to  be  consulted  by  the  bishop. 
Thorndike's  notion  was  to  reform  his  own  Church,  by 
bringing  it  back  to  what  he  considered  primitive  usage. 
Those  who  most  condemn  some  of  the  views  which  he 
advocated  will  be  constrained,  on  reading  his  life  and 
works,  to  acknowledge  the  guileless  simplicity  of  his 
character,  as  apparent  in  this  very  publication  at  such 
a  crisis.  He  says  himself,  "  If  I  be  like  a  man  with  an 
arrow  in  his  thigh,  or  like  a  woman  ready  to  bring 
forth,  that  is,  as  Ecclesiasticus  saith,  like  a  fool  that 
cannot  hold  what  is  in  his  heart,  I  am  in  this,  I  hope, 
no  fool  of  Solomon's,  but  with  St.  Paul,  'a  fool  for 
Christ's  sake.'  "  *  This  straightforward  course  annoyed 
those  who  were  seeking  to  restore  the  Church  in  a 
different  way.  "  Pray  tell  me  what  melancholy  hath 
possessed  poor  Mr.  Thorndike  ?  And  what  do  our 
friends  think  of  his  book  }  And  is  it  possible  that  he 
would  publish  it,  without  ever  imparting  it,  or  com- 
municating with  them  1 "  Such  questions  were  asked 
by  Sir  Edward  Hyde,  who  wondered  that  Thorndike 
should  publish  his  "  doubts  to  the  world  in  a  time  when 

*  Thorndike's  "Works,"  Vol.  II.,  Part  I.,  preface. 


36  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

he  might  reasonably  beHeve  the  worst  use  would  be 
made,  and  the  greatest  scandal  proceed  from  them."  *' 
Hyde's  own  method  of  proceeding  at  this  juncture 
appears  in  his  correspondence  with  Dr.  Barwick.  He 
did  not  trouble  himself,  like  Thorndike,  with  theological 
questions,  or  attempt  any  reformation  of  the  Church 
which  he  wished  to  restore ;  but  he  threw  himself 
heartily  into  efforts  for  the  preservation  of  the  Episcopal 
order.  For  the  Bishops  were  dying  out,  only  a  few 
survived  ;  in  a  short  time  all  would  be  dead,  and  then 
how  would  the  ministerial  succession  be  perpetuated  .''■ 
By  repairing  to  Rome,  or  by  admitting  the  validity  of 
Presbyterian  ordination  ?  As  Hyde  pondered  these 
queries  he  rebuked  the  friends  of  the  Church  for  their 
apathy,  "  The  King  hath  done  all  that  is  in  his  power 
to  do,  and  if  my  Lords  the  Bishops  will  not  do  the 
rest,  what  can  become  of  the  Church  }  The  conspiracies 
to  destroy  it  are  very  evident  ;  and,  if  there  can  be  no 
combination  to  preserve  it,  it  must  expire.  I  do  assure 
you,  the  names  of  all  the  Bishops  who  are  alive  and 
their  several  ages  are  as  well  known  at  Rome  as  in 
England  ;  and  both  the  Papist  and  the  Presbyterian 
value  themselves  very  much  upon  computing  in  how 
few  years  the  Church  of  England  must  expire."  f 
While  the  Prelates  generally  came  in  for  his  censure. 
Wren,  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  Duppa,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
were  exceptionally  noticed  as  active  and  earnest,  the 
most  lukewarm  being  Brownrigg,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
and  Skinner,  Bishop  of  Oxford.l:  It  was  easier,  how- 
ever, for  Hyde,  on  the  Continent,  to  write  zealously  on 

*  May  4.     Barwick's  "Life,"  401  ;  Thorndike,  VI.  219. 

t  Barwick's  "  Life,"  449. 

\  Barwick,  201,  218,  412.  Various  difficulties  felt  at  the  time 
by  the  Bishops  are  mentioned  in  the  letters  printed  in  the  Ap- 
pendix to  Barwick's  "  Life." 


1059.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  37 

this  subject  than  for  the  Bishops  in  England,  under 
inimical  rulers,  and  with  the  fear  of  penalties  before 
them,  to  do  anything  effective  for  the  consecration  of 
successors.  Difficulties  were  felt,  both  in  the  wandering 
Court  of  Charles  and  in  the  troubled  homes  of  ejected 
Episcopalians.  There  were  no  Deans  and  Chapters  to 
receive  the  conge  d'clirc,  and  to  act  upon  it.  Canonical 
and  constitutional  law  interposed  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  consecration.  Bishop  Bramhall  thought,  that  as  the 
King  had  an  absolute  power  of  nomination  for  Ireland, 
the  best  way  would  be  for  surviving  Bishops  to  conse- 
crate persons  Royally  nominated  to  Irish  sees,  and 
then  translate  them  to  England.  Bishop  Wren  objected 
to  this  as  practically  approving  what  he  considered  a 
defect  in  the  Church  of  the  sister  island ;  and  he  would 
rather,  he  said,  see  Ireland  conformed  to  England, 
than  England  to  Ireland.  His  own  plan,  in  which  Dr. 
Cosin  concurred,  was  much  the  same  as  one  which 
Barwick  proposed,  i.e.,  that  the  King  should  grant  a 
Commission  to  the  Bishops  of  each  province,  to  elect 
and  consecrate  fit  persons  for  vacant  sees,  and  ratify 
and  concern  the  process  afterwards.*  To  this  Hyde 
agreed,  and  wrote  for  the  form  of  such  a  Commission  as 
the  Bishops  might  judge  proper.  No  further  steps 
appear  to  have  been  taken  in  that  direction.  Hyde 
counselled  as  much  privacy  as  possible  in  measures  for 
the  preservation  of  the  Episcopal  order  ;  and  in  all 
affairs  relating  to  the  Church  he  recommended  the 
utmost  prudence  and  moderation :  at  a  later  period, 
when  Monk  was  preparing  for  Charles'  return,  Hyde 
complained  of  the  "  unskilful  passion  and  distemper"  of 
some  Divines.  The  King,  he  added,  was  really  troubled, 
and  "extremely  apprehensive  of  inconvenience  and 
*  Barwick,  413,  424. 


38  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  I. 

mischief  to  the  Church  and  himself."  Still  later,  he 
advised  that  endeavours  should  be  made  to  win  over 
those  who  had  reputation,  and  desired  to  merit  well  of 
the  Church,  and  that  there  should  be  no  compliance 
"with  the  pride  and  passion  of  those  who  propose 
extravagant  things."  *  As  correspondence  passed  be- 
tween Hyde  and  Barwick  many  Episcopalians  in 
England  gave  themselves  to  fasting  and  prayer.  Evelyn 
writes  in  his  diary  on  the  2ist  of  October  :  "  A  private 
fast  was  kept  by  the  Church  of  England  Protestants  in 
town,  to  beg  of  God  the  removal  of  His  judgments, 
with  devout  prayers  for  His  mercy  to  our  calamitous 
Church."  Other  entries  appear,  of  the  same  kind. 
The  ruling  politicians  in  England,  out  of  all  sympathy 
with  the  exiles,  were,  nevertheless,  promoting  their 
interests  by  divisions  at  home.f 

Money-matters,  out  of  which  broods  of  quarrels  are 
always  being  hatched,  caused  what  remained  of  the 
Long  Parliament  to  be  very  unpopular ;  and  the 
upshot  is  seen  in  the  dissolution  by  General  Lambert, 
on  the  13th  of  October,  of  that  attenuated  but  vivacious 
body,  whose  continued,  or  renewed  existence,  through 
an  age  of  revolutions,  presents  such  a  singular  phe- 
nomenon. 

*  Barwick,  517,  519,  525. 

t  1659,  ^'ov.  9  and  18,  Dec.  9.     1660,  Feb.  3. 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  39 


CHAPTER  II. 

After  Lambert's  imitation  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  in 
dissolving  the  House  of  Commons,  England  might  be 
said  to  be  without  any  Government  at  all.  In  contrast 
with  our  conscious  security,  and  our  reliance  upon  the 
stability  of  the  Constitution  at  a  moment  when  political 
changes  were  sweeping  over  Europe,*  as  rapidly  as  the 
shadows  of  the  clouds  chase  each  other  over  the  corn- 
fields, our  fathers,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1659, 
felt  they  had  no  political  constitution  whatever  in 
existence,  except  as  it  might  be  preserved  in  lawyers' 
books,  and  in  people's  memories.  The  Republicans 
were  at  sixes  and  sevens.  As  at  the  end  of  the  French 
Revolution,  so  now  all  sorts  of  constitutions  were  pro- 
posed. Some  were  for  a  select  Senate,  and  a  Parlia- 
mentary representation ;  some  for  an  Assembly  chosen 
by  the  people,  and  for  Councils  of  State  chosen  by 
that  Assembly ;  some  for  a  couple  of  Councils,  both 
chosen  by  the  popular  voice  :  and  some  for  a  scheme 
which  seemed  like  a  revival  of  the  Lacedaemonian 
Ephori.f  Amidst  distractions  of  opinion  these  specu- 
latists  were  inspired  by  personal  animosities ;  and, 
being  mutually  jealous,  they  constantly  misapprehended 
each  other's  motives.  It  was  a  strange  time,  and  as 
sad  as  it  was  strange,  when,  at  the  Rota  Club,  which 
*  1848.  t  Ludlow  II.  674. 


40  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

met  at  the  Turk's  Head,  in  New  Palace  Yard,  where 
Harrington  and  his  friends  were  wont  to  drink  their 
glasses  of  water,  it  had  become  a  practical  question, 
under  what  sort  of  Government  they  were  to  live  the 
next  year  ? 

London  was  a  Babel  of  ecclesiastical  no  less  than 
political  theories.  Presbyterians  contended  that  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  alone  could  heal  the 
nation's  wounds.  Fifth  Monarchy  men  could  see  no 
hope  but  in  the  second  coming  of  Christ.  Some  con- 
tended for  toleration  to  a  limited  extent,  with  a  national 
religion  exercised  according  to  Parliamentary  law,  the 
legal  and  ancient  provision  for  a  national  ministry  being 
augmented,  so  as  to  secure  to  each  clergyman  ;^ioo 
per  annum.  Others  contended  for  "the  way  of  old, 
laid  down  by  Christ,"  to  bring  it  about  again,  and  settle 
it  in  the  world  ;  and  such  teachers  declared  that  there 
needed  to  be  an  utter  plucking  up  of  all  that  was  in 
esteem  or  desire,  or  had  been  for  many  hundred  years.* 
In  the  "  Modest  Plea  for  an  Equal  Commonwealth,"  pub- 
lished in  1659,  it  was  proposed  to  abolish  tithes,  upon 
composition  being  made  for  them  by  landholders  ;  the 
money  so  raised  to  be  used  for  satisfying  the  proprietors, 
and  paying  the  arrears  of  the  Army  ;  also  for  discharg- 
ing public  debts,  and  providing  for  the  dispossessed  in- 
cumbents during  the  remainder  of  their  lives.f  Causes 
of  discontent  and  disquiet,  often  overlooked,  existed  at 
that  period.  Scarcity  always  aggravates  when  it  does 
not  produce  political  confusion.  The  price  of  corn  had 
singularly  fluctuated  during  the  Commonwealth  :   like 

*  See  pamphlets  :  "  The  Leveller  ;  "  "  The  Rota  ;  or.  Model  of 
a  Free  State;"  and  "  Galhcantus  seu  praecursor  Gallicinii 
Secundus." 

t  "  State  Papers,  Doni.  Interreg."  No.  659. 


1659.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIO.V.  41 

the  tide  it  had  gradually  ebbed  during  the  first  half ; 
like  the  tide  it  had  gradually  flowed  during  the  second. 
In  1649,  the  year  of  Charles'  execution,  wheat  had 
reached  eighty  shillings  a  quarter  ;  in  1654,  the  first 
year  of  Oliver's  protectorate,  it  fell  as  low  as  twenty- 
six  shillings,  good  harvests  coming  to  bless  his  new 
administration.  After  that  year  wheat  rose  again,  till 
in  1659  it  attained  the  price  of  sixty-six  shillings  ;  the 
dearness  of  bread  being,  as  we  might  expect,  however 
unjustly,  laid  at  the  door  of  a  Government  arrived  at 
the  last  stage  of  incompetency  and  weakness.*  The 
result  of  combined  calamities  speedily  became  apparent. 
The  military  was  dissatisfied  and  divided.  Troops  law- 
lessly prowled  about  the  country  ;  they  levied  contri- 
butions in  all  quarters,  threatening  their  enemies,  and 
harassing  their  friends.  Their  swords  were  warrants 
for  exaction  ;  and  when  told  that  their  conduct  would 
lead  to  the  return  of  Charles  Stuart,  they  answered  such 
an  event  could  never  happen  so  long  as  they  continued 
to  carry  arms.  Colonels  and  Captains  lost  command 
over  their  men  ;  the  latter  did  what  was  right  in  their 
own  eyes,  and  nothing  else.f 

It  is  startling  to  find  how  rapidly  change  succeeded 
change  in  high  places.  The  remains  of  the  Long  Par- 
liament, as  it  existed  at  the  time  of  its  dissolution  by 
Oliver  Cromwell,  were,  for  want  of  better  rulers,  restored 
the  day  after  Christmas-day,  %  according  to  the  wishes 
of  the  soldiers,  not  the  Generals.  Lenthall,  after  sum- 
moning such  members  as  could  be  found,  again  arrayed 

*  See  prices  in  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Bk.  I., 
Chap.  II. 

t  Guizot,  II.  62. 

i  Price  says  Christmas-day.  ("  Hist,  of  the  King's  Restora- 
tion," 72.) 


42  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IL 

himself  in  his  Speaker's  robes,  again  went  in  state  to 
the  House  to  reoccupy  the  old  chair  ;  and  the  soldiers, 
who  ten  weeks  before  had  driven  him  from  the  doors 
of  St.  Stephen's,  now  shouted,  at  the  top  of  their  voices, 
in  honour  of  his  solemn  re-entrance.  Prynne,  and  other 
gentlemen  excluded  by  Pride's  purge,  were  once  more 
excepted  from  the  number  summoned,  and  sought  in 
vain  re-admission  to  their  vacant  seats.  The  remnant  of 
legislators  upon  assembling  anew  appointed  a  Council 
of  State,  but  never  was  any  form  of  Government  so 
unmercifully  ridiculed  as  was  this. 

Something  needed  to  be  done.  The  Royalists 
throughout  all  this  tumult  had  not  been  asleep.  They 
had  increased  the  miserable  confusion,  and  even  re- 
joiced in  the  gloom,  because  the  darker  the  night  the 
nearer  the  dawn.  Booth's  rising  in  August  had  been 
repressed,  but  an  enormous  flood  of  disaffection,  of 
which  that  had  been  a  sort  of  Geyser  outgush,  con- 
tinued to  boil  beneath  the  surface.  Secret  conferences 
were  held  ;  plots  were  laid.  The  deeply  engrained  love 
of  Monarchy  in  the  English  mind,  only  painted  over  of 
late  years,  now  that  the  paint  was  being  rubbed  off, 
became  distinctly  visible.  The  press  took  the  utmost 
license.  Evelyn,  in  his  "  Apology  for  the  Royal  Party," 
denounced  the  Rump  as  a  coffin  which  was  yet  less 
empty  than  the  heads  of  certain  politicians.  He  boldly 
demanded  the  restoration  of  Charles  Stuart,  maintain- 
ing that  he  might  be  trusted  because  of  his  innate  love 
of  justice,  and  his  father's  dying  injunctions,  and  be- 
cause there  were  none,  however  crimson-dyed  their 
crimes,  whom  he  would  not  pardon  in  the  abundance 
of  his  clemency  and  mercy.  The  author  of  "  A  Plea  for 
Limited  Monarchy  "  adds  the  sorrows  of  memory  to  the 
pleasures  of  hope,  as  motives  for  restoring  the  King  ; 


1G59.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  45 

for  he  dwells  upon  the  decay  of  trade,  and  complains 
that  the  oil  and  honey  promised  by  Oliver  had  been 
turned  to  bitterness  and  gall ;  and  that  Lambert's  free 
quarterings  had  licked  up  the  little  which  had  been  left 
in  the  people's  cruse.*  These  appeals  fell  on  willing 
ears.  The  nation  was  weary,  weary  of  inefficient  rulers, 
weary  of  ideal  Republics.  Had  there  been  some 
master-spirit  equal  to  the  departed  one,  with  a  strong 
and  well-disciplined  Army  at  his  back,  the  Common- 
wealth might  even  now  at  last  have  been  restored  to 
what  it  was  two  years  before  ;  but  nobody  like  the 
vanished  man  remained,  and  the  Army  fell  to  pieces. 

General  Monk  had  a  large  portion  of  it  under  his 
immediate  control  in  the  North.  The  Committee  of 
Safety  had,  in  the  month  of  November,  appointed  him 
Commander-in-Chief  of  all  the  forces,  and  he  now  de- 
termined to  employ  his  influence  for  purposes  of  his 
own.  The  troops  under  Lambert,  who  still  cherished 
Republican  ideas  and  designs,  were  ordered  by  a  mes- 
senger of  Parliament  to  withdraw  to  their  respective 
quarters  ;  consequently  that  ambitious  and  turbulent 
personage  retired  into  privacy.  The  soldiers  in  London, 
tired  of  their  commanders,  had  asked  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Rump,  and  had  placed  themselves  under 
its  authority.  Monk  alone  possessed  much  military 
power.  Li  the  month  of  January  we  find  him  marching 
up  to  London.  On  entering  the  gates  of  York  two 
Presbyterian  ministers  escorted  him  to  his  lodgings  ; 
one  of  them,  the  eminent  Edward  Bowles,  "the  spring 
that  moved  all  the  wheels  in  that  city,"  who  "  dealt 

*  Numerous  illustrations  of  the  state  of  feeling  at  the  time 
might  be  culled  from  these  and  other  pamphlets  of  the  period. 
Some  are  printed  in  the  "  Harleian  Miscellany.''  Some  are 
described  in  Kennet's  "  Register.'  A  large  collection  of  them 
may  be  found  in  the  British  Museum. 


44  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

with  the  General  about  weighty  and  dangerous  affairs," 
keeping  him  up  till  midnight,  and  pressing  him  very- 
hard  to  stay  there,  and  declare  for  the  King.  "  Have 
you  made  any  such  promise  }  "  inquired  Monk's  chap- 
lain, "  No,  truly,  I  have  not ;  or,  I  have  7wi  fct,"  was 
the  reply.  After  a  pause  the  chaplain  remarked, 
"When  the  famous  Gustavus  entered  Germany,  he 
said,  '  that  if  his  shirt  knew  what  he  intended  to  do, 
he  would  tear  it  from  his  back,  and  burn  it' "  The 
speaker  applied  the  story  to  his  master,  entreating  him 
to  sleep  between  York  and  London  ;  and  when  he 
entered  the  walls  of  the  Metropolis  to  open  his  eyes, 
and  look  about  him.*  Perhaps  the  chaplain  knew  that 
such  counsel  would  be  agreeable  to  his  patron  ;  but  it 
was  quite  unnecessary  to  talk  in  this  fashion  to  one 
pre-eminently  reticent,  and  as  watchful  with  his  eyes  as 
he  was  cautious  with  his  lips. 

Monk,  at  the  time,  was  far  from  being  reputed  a 
Royalist.  He,  with  his  officers,  had  in  the  month  of 
June,  1659,  expressed  Republican  opinions.  In  the 
following  November  the  same  person  corresponding 
with  Dr.  Owen,  and  other  representatives  of  the  Inde- 
pendents in  London,  promised  that  their  interests  should 
ever  be  dear  to  his  heart  ;  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  the  laws  and  rights  for  which  they  had  been 
struggling  through  eighteen  years  might  be  "  reduced 
to  a  Parliamentary  Government,  and  the  people's  con- 
senting to  the  laws."t     The  General  reached  St.  Albans 

*  Price's  "  Mystery  and  Method  of  His  Majesty's  Happy 
Restoration,"  79,  80. 

t  Neal  (IV.  238-242)  says  that  when  Monk  had  joined  the 
Presbyterians,  and  the  Independents  saw  that  they  were  betrayed, 
they  ofifered  to  support  their  friends  in  Parliament,  and  to  raise 
four  new  regiments  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  the  General's 
designs.     He  further  states  that  Owen  and  Nye  consulted  with 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  45 

on  the  28th  of  January,  when  Hugh  Peters  preached 
before  him  a  characteristic  sermon,  Httle  thinking  of 
what  the  chief  person  in  the  audience  was  about  to 
accompHsh.  "  As  for  his  sermon,"  says  one  who  heard 
it,  "  he  managed  it  with  some  dexterity  at  the  first 
(allowing  the  cantings  of  his  expressions).  His  text 
was  Psalm  cvii.  7  :  '  He  led  them  forth  by  the  right 
way,  that  they  might  go  to  the  city  where  they  dwelt.'* 
With  his  fingers  on  the  cushion  he  measured  the  right 
way  from  the  Red  Sea  through  the  wilderness  to 
Canaan  ;  told  us  it  was  not  forty  days'  march,  but  God 
led  Israel  forty  years  through  the  wilderness  before 
they  came  thither ;  yet  this  was  still  the  Lord's  right 
way,  who  led  his  people  crinkledovi  cum  crankledom ; 
and  he  particularly  descended  into  the  lives  of  the 
patriarchs,  how  they  journeyed  up  and  down  though 
there  were  promises  of  blessing  and  rest  to  them.  Then 
he  reviewed  our  civil  wars,  our  intervals  of  peace  and 
fresh  distractions,  and  hopes  of  rest  ;  but  though  the 
Lord's  people  (he  said)  were  not  yet  come  to  the  City 
of  Habitation,  He  was  still  leading  them  on  in  the 
right  way,  how  dark  soever  His  dispensations  might 
appear  to  us."  f 

As  I  am  writing  an  Ecclesiastical,  and  not  a  Political 
History,  I  leave  untouched  the  tangled  web  of  incidents 
occurring  in  the  City  in  the  councils  of  the  Repub- 
licans ;  and  in  the  relations  of  Monk  to  the  conflicting 
parties,  between  the  6th  and  nth  of  February.  I  can 
only  state,  that  on  the  last  of  these  days  the  martial 
chief  appeared  at  Guildhall,  and  said,  "  What  I  have  to 

Whitelocke  and  St.  John,  and  engaged  to  procure  ^100,000  to 
support  the  Army,  if  the  Army  would  again  undertake  the  defence 
of  rehgious  hberty  ;  but  he  gives  no  authority  for  what  he  relates, 
*  Coverdale's  Version.  t  Piice,  86,  87. 


46  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

tell  you  is  this  :  I  have  this  morning  sent  to  the  Par- 
liament to  issue  out  writs  within  seven  days,  for  the 
filling  up  of  their  House,  and  when  filled  to  sit  no 
longer  than  the  6th  of  May,  but  then  to  give  place  to  a 
full  and  free  Parliament."  * 

The  joy  which  this  intelligence  produced  in  the  City 
was  unbounded,  and  it  comes  before  us  with  the  vivid- 
ness of  a  present  event  in  the  garrulous  "  Diary "  of 
Pepys.  As  merry  peals  rolled  and  fired  from  the 
London  steeples,  fourteen  bonfires  Avere  kindled  between 
St.  Dunstan's  and  Temple  Bar ;  and  at  Strand  Bridge 
the  gossip  at  the  same  time  counted  thirty-one  of  those 
English  demonstrations  of  delight.  The  butchers,  at 
the  Maypole  in  the  Strand,  rang  a  peal  with  their 
knives  ;  and  on  Ludgate-hill  a  man  occupied  himself 
with  turning  a  spit,  on  which  was  tied  a  rump  of  beef, 
whilst  another  man  basted  it.  At  one  end  of  the  street 
there  seemed  "  a  whole  lane  of  fire,"  so  hot  that  people 
were  fain  to  keep  on  the  side  farthest  off.f 

The  excitement  following  the  news  in  other  parts 
seems  to  have  been  not  less  intense.  At  Nottingham, 
"  as  almost  all  the  rest  of  the  island,"  the  town  "  began 
to  grow  mad."  Boys  marched  about  with  drums  and 
colours,  and  offered  insults  to  Republican  soldiers. 
One  night  some  forty  of  the  latter  class  were  wounded 
by  stones,  thrown  at  them  as  they  attempted  to  seize 
the  obstreperous  lads.  Two  Presbyterians  were  shot 
in  the  scuffle  ;  one  a  zealous  Royalist,  master  of  the 
magazine,  at  Nottingham  Castle.  "  Upon  the  killing 
of  this  man,"  the  Presbyterians  "  were  hugely  enraged, 
and  prayed  very  seditiously  in  their  pulpits,  and  began 
openly  to  desire  the  King ;  not  for  good  will,  neither 

*  Quoted  in  Guizot,  II.  122. 

t  Pepys'  "Diary,"  I.  22,  Saturday,  Feb.  11. 


1G60.]         THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  47 

to  him,  but  for  destruction  to  all  the  fanatics."  *  The 
rabble  raved  with  joy.  Milton  mourned  over  the 
madness  in  strains  of  majestic  sorrow.  "And  what 
will  they  at  best  say  of  us,  and  of  the  whole  English 
name,  but  scofifingly,  as  of  that  foolish  builder  men- 
tioned by  our  Saviour,  who  began  to  build  a  tower 
and  was  not  able  to  finish  it }  Where  is  this  goodly 
tower  of  a  Commonwealth,  which  the  English  boasted 
they  would  build  to  overshadow  kings,  and  be  another 
Rome  in  the  West }  The  foundation  indeed  they  laid 
gallantly ;  but  fell  into  a  worse  confusion,  not  of 
tongues,  but  of  factions,  than  those  at  the  tower  of 
Babel ;  and  have  left  no  memorial  of  their  work  behind 
them  remaining,  but  in  the  common  laughter  of 
Europe  !  Which  must  needs  redound  the  more  to  our 
shame,  if  we  but  look  on  our  neighbours,  the  United 
Provinces,  to  us  inferior  in  all  outward  advantages  ; 
who  notwithstanding,  in  the  midst  of  greater  difficulties, 
courgeously,  wisely,  constantly  went  through  with  the 
same  work,  and  are  settled  in  all  the  happy  enjoyments 
of  a  potent  and  flourishing  Republic  to  this  day."t 
No  one  bewailed  so  intensely  the  reverse  which  had 
befallen  "  the  good  cause  "  as  the  blind  poet,  majestic 
now  in  grief  as  before  he  had  been  majestic  in  joy, 
when  liberty  began  its  triumph.  He  remembered  how, 
like  the  hero  in  the  book  of  Judges,  the  Puritan  had 
vanquished  the  Philistine  by  means  at  first  sight  con- 
temptible, so  that  the  victory  appeared  on  that  very 
account  all  the  more  Divine  ;  but  now  the  victor  had 
been  shorn  of  his  locks,  and  was  on  the  point  of  grinding 
in  the  prison  house,  whilst  voluptuous  enemies  held  a 
feast  in  their  temple,  and  made  sport  of  the  captive 

*  "  Memoirs  of  Col.  Hutchinson,"  362. 

t  Milton's  "  Ready  and  Easy  Way,  etc."     "  Works,"  I.  589, 


48  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Cuap.  L 

Nazarite.  This  the  poet  transferred  in  a  figure  to 
himself,  and  making  the  sorrows  of  the  defeated  party 
all  his  own,  expressed  them  with  a  power  and  pathos 
unequalled,  in  his  "  Samson  Agonistes."  * 

The  political  importance  of  the  Independents  had 
declined  with  the  humiliation  of  Fleetwood,  and  of  the 
officers  who  sympathized  with  him.  Their  strength 
had  rested  on  the  Army,  and  with  the  dislocation  of 
the  Army  came  the  termination  of  their  ascendency. 
On  the  2 1st  of  February  the  surviving  members  of  the 
Commons'  Hoiise,  who  had  been  excluded  by  Colonel 
Pride,  were  restored  to  their  former  seats,  a  measure 
which  placed  power  once  more  in  Presbyterian  hands. 
Monk,  the  author  of  this  revolution,  addressed  Parlia- 
ment on  that  same  day,  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  interests  of  London  must  lie  in  a  Commonwealth, 
that  Government  only  being  capable  of  making  the 
country,  through  the  Lord's  blessing,  the  metropolis 
and  bank  of  trade  for  all  Christendom  ;  "  and  as  to  a 
government  in  the  Church,"  he  proceeded  to  say,  "  the 
want  whereof  hath  been  no  small  cause  of  these  nations* 
distractions  ;  it  is  most  manifest  that  if  it  be  monarchical 
in  the  State,  the  Church  must  follow,  and  Prelacy  must 
be  brought  in,  which  these  nations,  I  know,  cannot 
bear,  and  against  which  they  have  so  solemnly  sworn  : 
and,  indeed,  moderate  not  rigid  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment, with  a  sufficient  liberty  for  consciences  truly 
tender,  appears  at  present  to  be  the  most  indifferent 
and  acceptable  Avay  to  the  Church's  settlement."  f 
The  fortunes  of  Presbyterianism  had  been  changeful 
fortunes.     It  had  been  established  by  the  Long  Parlia- 

*  "  Samson "  is  thought  by  some  to  have  been  published  in 
1663.     On  its  deep  meaning,  see  Pattison's  "  Milton,"  p.  196. 
t  "Pari.  Hist.,"  III.  1580. 


1660.]         TITE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION'.  49 

ment  ;    its   power  had  waned   under  the  predominant 
sway    of  the    Army  ;    though    adopted    more   or    less 
throughout  the  country,  it  had  been  nowhere  so  fully 
developed  as  in  Lancashire  ;  and  it  had  received  no 
special  encouragement  from  Oliver  Cromwell.     After 
his    death    it    received    a    slight    impetus,    only   to   be 
checked  by  the  Republican  policy  of  Vane  and   the 
Military.       But    now    Presbyterianism    appears    recon- 
stituted  in  the  Church  of  England,  re-established  as 
the  national  religion  ;   and  it  is  of  great  importance  to 
remember  this  fact  throughout  the   narrative   of  the 
Restoration  ;    for    it    was    with    Presbyterianism    thus 
situated,  rather  than  with  Independency,  or  any  other 
ecclesiastical  systems,  that  Episcopacy  came  first  inta 
competition  and  conflict  after  the  King's  return.     It 
soon  became  plain  to  which  ecclesiastical  party  most 
influence  belonged.     On  the  2nd  of  March  the  West- 
minster  Confession    was   re-adopted ;    a   proclamation 
was  issued  for  enforcing  all  existing  laws  against  popish 
priests,  Jesuits,  and  recusants  ;  and  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced to  provide  for  an  authorized  approval  of  ministers 
previously   to    their   holding   benefices.     The    Solemn 
League  and  Covenant  re-appeared  on  the  wall  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  also  was  ordered  to  be  read 
in  every  church  once  a  year.    Upon  the  13th,  Dr.  Owen,, 
the    Independent,  was  removed  from  the  Deanery  of 
Christ   Church,  and    Dr.   Reynolds,  the   Presbyterian, 
was  appointed  in  his  room. 

But  appearances  were  fallacious.  The  Restoration 
was  inevitable,  and  with  the  Restoration,  the  Puritan 
Establishment,  which  had  been  the  offspring  of  the 
Civil  Wars,  virtually  expired. 

The  Presbyterians  were  the  principal  instruments  in 
Charles'  restoration  ;    and    in    this  they  acted  as    the 

VOL.    III.  K 


50  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

exponents  and  instruments  of  the  nation's  will.  It 
was  not  Monk  who  influenced  the  Presbyterians,  the 
Presbyterians  influenced  Monk.  Their  leaders  en- 
couraged his  bringing  back  the  King,  and  conveyed 
to  him  that  encouragement  at  a  conference  which  they 
held  with  him  in  the  City.*  The  part  played  by  the 
Presbyterians  in  this  transaction  is  admitted  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Royal  family ;  and  in  the  correspondence 
of  the  period  a  curtain  is  lifted  up,  disclosing  Court 
secrets,  and  illustrating  the  manner  in  which  the 
Presbyterians  at  that  moment  were  overreached.  When 
the  Queen  Dowager  saw  Lord  Aubony  she  remarked, 
"  My  Lord,  I  hear  you  say  that  the  King  is  to  go  to 
England,  and  that  you  are  glad  there  is  such  a  (way) 
laid  open  for  him.  Do  not  you  know  that  the  Presby- 
terians are  those  that  are  to  invite  him  ?  "  The  noble- 
man answered  that  he  did  not  care  who  they  were,  but 
only  wished  to  see  His  Majesty  restored  to  his  own 
realm.  "  But  the  conditions,"  rejoined  the  Queen, 
"may  be  such  as  they  would  have  pressed  upon  the 
King  his  father."  "Madam,"  replied  his  lordship,  "a 
king  crowned,  and  in  his  own  dominions  has  more 
reason  to  insist  upon  terms  than  an  exiled  prince  that 
hath  not  been  accepted  by  them.  What  would  any 
one  have  him  do,  other  than  receive  his  kingdoms  by 
what  means  soever  they  were  given  him  .''  And  some 
better  way  than  this  occurs  ;  not  what  fault  is  to  be 
found  with  that  which  cannot  be  mended  }  "  f 

Baxter  informs  us  respecting  schemes  adopted  by 
the  Episcopalian   Royalists,  with  a  view  to  influence 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  I.  105  ;  II.  214. 

t  1660,  April  8.  (Thurloe,  VII.  892.)  The  rest  of  the  letter  is 
interesting,  and  shows  how  much  personal  feeling  was  mixed  up 
with  court  intrigues. 


1G60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  51 

their  Presbyterian  brethren.  Sir  Ralph  Clare,  of  Kid- 
derminster, and  therefore  one  of  Baxter's  parishioners, 
had,  before  Booth's  rising,  spoken  to  his  pastor  on  the 
subject ;  and  he  had  replied  by  expressing  fears  of 
prelatical  intolerance,  and  of  the  danger  to  the  interests 
of  spiritual  religion  in  case  of  the  restoration  of  the 
Stuarts.  The  Knight  said,  that  being  acquainted  with 
a  correspondent  of  Dr.  Morley,  then  attending  upon 
His  Majesty,  he  could  assure  Baxter,  the  utmost 
moderation  was  intended,  and  that  "any  episcopacy, 
how  low  soever,  would  serve  the  turn  and  be  accepted." 
Letters  from  France  were  procured,  testifying  to  the 
character  of  the  Royal  exile.  They  abounded  in 
eulogies  upon  his  Protestantism.  Monsieur  Caches,  a 
famous  preacher  at  Charenton,  after  flattering  Baxter, 
gave  "  a  pompous  character  of  the  King,"  stating  that 
during  his  residence  in  France  he  never  neglected  the 
public  profession  of  the  Protestant  religion,  not  even  in 
those  places  where  it  seemed  prejudicial  to  his  affairs.* 
Baxter's  pages  bear  witness  to  the  fears  of  others  as 
well  as  to  his  own,  to  lull  which  dulcet  promises  were 
sung.  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians,  it  was  softly 
said,  were  not  irreconcilable ;  union  was  possible  ; 
present  incumbents  would  not  be  turned  out  of  their 
livings.  Their  ordinations  would  be  valid.f  Episco- 
palians were  resolved  to  forgive,  to  bury  the  remains  of 
rancour,  malice,  and  animosity  for  ever  ;  having  been 
taught  by  sufferings  from  the  hand  of  God,  not  to 
cherish  violent  thoughts  against  their  brother    man.| 

*  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  207,  215.  It  is  curious  that  as  the 
Presbyterians  suspected  the  King,  so  the  King  suspected  the 
Presbyterians.    (See  letter  by  Kingstoun,  April  8,  just  referred  to.) 

t  See  "  Valley  of  Baca,"  a  pamphlet  published  about  that  tmie. 

%  See  a  "Declaration,"  which  is  worth  reading,  printed  in 
Kennet's  "Register,"  121  (April  24th),  with  a  long  hst  of  noble 
signatures. 


52  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

Some  Presbyterians  were  pacified,  expecting  that  sub- 
scription to  the  Prayer  Book  would  be  no  longer 
required.  Others,  at  least,  hoped  for  toleration.  Some 
acted  simply  from  a  conviction  that  it  was  a  duty  to 
bring  back  the  King ;  others  regarded  that  event  as  at 
once  ruinous  but  inevitable.*  A  few  could  not  abandon 
the  idea  of  restoring  Charles  on  Covenant  terms ;  but 
only  such  as  lived  in  a  little  world  of  their  own  dreamt 
of  a  thing  so  preposterous.f 

In  coincidence  with  these  circumstances  the  personal 
friends  of  the  exiled  Prince  revolved  in  their  minds  the 
possibilities  of  the  future,  and  employed  themselves  in 
framing  suggestions  to  be  laid  upon  the  Royal  table. 
We  read  in  a  paper  without  signature,  dated  March  28, 
1660,  "It  is  most  certainly  true  that  Presbytery  is  a 
very  ill  foundation  to  Monarchy,  and  therefore  it  must 
be  said  with  great  care  and  circumspection.  You  know 
what  your  father  suffered  by  them,  and  yourself  also  in 
Scotland,  whither  when  you  went,  though  all  were  for 
it,  I  Avas  absolutely  against  it,  and  gave  my  reasons  to 
one,  who  I  suppose  now  attends  you,  which  experience 
hath  proved  true."  And  again,  "'Twill  be  of  great 
consequence  that  you  mainly  insist  upon  a  toleration 
for  all,  as  well  Roman  Catholics  as  others,  or,  at  least, 
to  take  off  the  penal  statutes  against  them.  There  is 
not  anything  you  can  do  will  be  of  more  advantage 
than  this,  for  thereby  you  will  satisfy  all  here  and 
abroad.  Moreover,  by  doing  this  you  will  secure  your- 
self against  the  Presbyterians  and  Sectaries,  by  equally 
poising  them  with   others   of  contrary  judgments,  for 

*  All  this  Baxter  describes  with  great  simplicity  in  his  "  Life 
and  Times,"  II.  216. 

t  See  correspondence  between  Sharp  and  Douglas,  in  the 
months  of  March  and  April,  Kennet's  "  Register,"  78-124. 


1C60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  53 

you  may  doubt  that  the  Presbyterians  and  Sectaries 
will  at  length  fall  to  their  first  principles  again,  and 
endeavour  to  make  you  at  the  best  but  a  Duke  of 
Venice,  if  they  see  not  a  visible  power  to  defend  you. 
The  like  course  hath  many  times  been  used  by  great 
princes,  and  never  succeeded  ill  when  they  saw  one 
faction  rise  too  high  to  suffer  a  quite  contrary  to  grow 
up  to  balance  it."  * 

Sir  William  Killegrew  addressing  Charles,  upon  the 
Sth  of  April,  shrewdly  states  the  difficulties  of  his  new 
position  :  "  If  your  Majesty  do  but  think  on  the 
numerous  clergy  with  their  families,  and  on  the  in- 
numerable multitudes  of  all  those  that  have  suffered  on 
your  side  that  will  expect  a  reparation  or  recompence  ; 
nay,  Sir,  it  is  evident  that  all  the  people  in  general  do 
look  that  you  should  bring  them  peace  and  plenty,  as 
well  as  a  pardon  for  all  those  who  have  offended.  And 
I  do  fear  you  will  find  it  a  harder  matter  to  satisfy 
those  that  call  themselves  your  friends,  and  those  who 
really  are  so  than  all  those  who  have  been  against  your 
Majesty."  "  Next,  Sir,  if  you  come  to  your  crown  as 
freely  as  you  are  born  to  it,  how  will  you  settle  Church- 
government  at  first  to  please  the  old  true  Protestants  } 
And  how  the  Presbyterians,  who  now  call  you  in,  when 
all  other  interests  have  failed  to  do  it  ?  And  how  the 
Papists,  who  do  hope  for  a  toleration  ?  How  satisfy 
the  Independents,  the  Congregation,  and  all  the  several 
sorts  of  violent  Sectaries  1  Whereas  if  your  Majesty 
be  tied  up  by  Articles,  none  of  all  these  can  blame  you 
for  not  answering  their  expectations."  f 

Two  days  before  the  date  of  this  last  letter,  Secretary 
Thurloe,   at   Whitehall,  silently   watching    what    was 

*  Thurloe,  VII.  872,  873. 
t  April  8,  Thurloe,  VII.  889. 


54  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IL 

going  on  around  him,  conveyed  his  impressions  of  the 
state  of  religious  parties  to  the  EngHsh  minister  at 
the  Hague.  "  There  are  here  great  thoughts  of  heart 
touching  the  present  constitution  of  affairs.  The  Sec- 
tarians with  the  Commonwealth's  men  look  upon  them- 
selves as  utterly  lost  if  the  King  comes  in,  and  therefore 
probably  will  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  prevent  it ; 
but  what  they  will  be  able  to  do,  I  see  not,  of  them- 
selves, unless  the  Presbyterian  joins  with  them,  whereto 
I  see  no  disposition  ;  yet  many  of  them  are  alarmed 
also,  and  are  thinking  how  to  keep  him  out,  and  yet 
not  mingle  again  with  the  Sectaries.  Others  of  the 
Presbyterians  are  studying  strict  conditions  to  be  put 
upon  the  King,  especially  touching  Church-government, 
hoping  to  bind  him  that  way ;  and  therein  are  most 
severe  against  all  the  King's  old  party,  proscribing 
them  which  are  already  beyond  sea.  Not  one  of  them 
is  to  return  with  him  if  he  comes  in  upon  their  terms, 
and  prohibiting  his  party  here  to  come  near  him  :  he 
must  also  confirm  all  sales  whatsoever."  * 

The  first  decided  declaration  in  favour  of  the  restora- 
tion of  Charles  on  the  part  of  Monk,  who  for  months 
had  perplexed  everybody,  seems  to  have  occurred  on 
the  19th  of  March,  when,  in  answer  to  Royal  overtures 
for  his  assistance,  and  to  Royal  promises  of  high 
rewards,  he  said  to  Sir  John  Grenville,  about  to  join 
the  little  Court  at  Breda,  "  I  hope  the  King  will  forgive 
what  is  past,  both  in  my  words  and  actions,  according 
to  the  contents  of  his  gracious  letter,  for  my  heart  was 
ever  faithful  to  him  ;  but  I  was  never  in  a  condition  to 
do  him  service  till  this  present ;  and  you  shall  assure 
His  Majesty  that  I  am  now  not  only  ready  to  obey  his 

*  April  6th,  Thuiioe,  887. 


16G0.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  55 

commands,  but  to  sacrifice  my  life  and  fortune  in  his 
service."  * 

Thus,  the  man  who  had  solemnly  declared  himself 
in  favour  of  a  Commonwealth,  now  suddenly,  with  open 
arms,  embraced  the  Royal  cause,  as  the  turn  of  events 
began  to  brighten  its  fortunes  ;  and  as  he  had  been 
first  an  Independent,  and  then  a  Presbyterian,  so  now 
he  became  not  only  a  Royalist,  but  an  Episcopalian. 
Most  likely  Monk  was  all  the  way  through  a  selfish 
schemer,  trimming  his  sails  to  the  wind,  and  ready  for 
King  or  Commonwealth,  as  he  might  see  it  safe  and 
advantageous.  If  that  view  of  his  character  be  not 
correct,  then  the  only  alternative,  one  which  his  admir- 
ing biographers  adopt,  and  which  he  avowed  himself, 
is,  that  he  had  long  been  promoting  Royalist  interests 
under  the  disguise  of  Republican  sentiments,  a  conclu- 
sion which  would  justify  us  in  pronouncing  him  one  of 
the  most  consummate  hypocrites  the  world  ever  saw.t 
Sir  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper  was  a  confidant  of  Monk, 
and  Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson  tells  us  that  he  assured  her 
husband,  even  after  Monk's  designs  became  apparent, 
that  there  was  no  intention  of  anything  but  a  Com- 
monwealth, and  that  if  the  violence  of  the  people 
should  bring  back  the  King,  he  would  perish  body  and 
soul  rather  than  see  a  hair  touched,  or  a  penny  forfeited 
through  the  quarrel.  Hutchinson  held  Cooper  "for  a 
more  execrable  traytor  than  Monkc  himselfe."  More- 
over, Aubrey,  writing  his  recollections  of  what  he  heard 
at  the  time  from  Royalist  agents  in  London,  remarks 
respecting  Monk,  "  I  remember,  in  the  main,  that  they 
were  satisfied  he  no  more  intended    or   designed   the 

*  Price's   "Mystery   and    Method   of   His    Majesty's    Happy 
Restoration,"  136. 

t  See  Memoirs  of  him  by  Gmiible  and  Price. 


S6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

King's  restoration,  when  he  came  into  England,  or  first 
came  to  London,  than  his  horse  did."  *  I  have  no  doubt 
that,  in  February,  Monk  thought  of  restoring  the  King ; 
but  before  that  date  I  am  inchned  to  beHeve  he  was 
waiting  to  see  which  way  the  wind  blew.  Whatever 
hypothesis  may  be  adopted  as  to  his  intentions,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  he  acted  the  part  of  a  thoroughly 
untruthful  man.  Guizot,  in  his  life  of  Monk,  represents 
him  as  a  Royalist  at  heart  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
business.  Of  course  Monk,  after  he  openly  took  the 
King's  side,  would  wish  to  be  so  regarded. 

The  dissolution  of  the  Rump  had  been  connected 
with  a  determination  to  call  together  a  new  Parliament 
to  meet  on  the  25  th  of  April,  The  preparatory  elections 
evoked  the  efforts  of  all  parties,  the  Presbyterians,  the 
Episcopalians,  and  the  "sects,"  as  Congregationalists 
and  other  Nonconformists  were  termed.  The  last  of 
these  three  parties,  mostly  anxious  for  a  Republican 
form  of  government,  did  what  they  could  to  return 
representatives  holding  extreme  democratical  opinions. 
The  second  of  them,  where  they  dared  to  appear,  in 
some  cases,  from  a  too  fervent  zeal,  overshot  the  mark, 
and  by  their  violence  alienated  the  constituencies  which 
they  canvassed.  The  first  of  these  parties,  the  Presby- 
terians, who,  after  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  had 
held  the  administration  of  afiairs  in  their  own  hands, 
and  with  whom,  for  the  time  being.  Monk,  their  betrayer 
in  the  end,  was  in  co-operation,  used  such  methods  as 
their  executive  powers  afforded,  to  sway  the  elections 
in  favour  of  their  own  views.  The  Presbyterians,  in- 
cluding different  shades  of  opinion,  uniting  with  the 
more  moderate  Episcopalians  and  Cavaliers,  succeeded 
in  obtaining  a  large  majority. 

*  "  Letters,"  III.  454. 


1G60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  57 

The  persons  who  had  been  elected  members  of  the 
Convention  began  to  assemble  in  St.  Stephen's  Chapel 
upon  the  25th  of  April.  The  Presbyterian  leaders, 
Holies,  Pierrepoint,  and  Lewis,  secured  immediately 
the  office  of  Speaker  for  Sir  Harbottie  Grimston,  of 
whose  decided  Presbyterianism  there  could  be  no 
doubt.  This  critical  movement  was  accomplished  in 
an  irregular  manner,  before  even  forty  members  had 
taken  their  seats.  The  preachers  appointed  to  address 
the  Commons  were  Gauden,  Calamy,  and  Baxter,  all 
three  at  that  time  Presbyterian  Conformists.  In  the 
House  of  Peers,  where  only  ten  members  at  first 
resumed  their  places,  the  Presbyterian  Earl  of  Man- 
chester was  chosen  to  preside.  Two  Presbyterian 
ministers,  Reynolds  and  Hardy,  were  selected  to  preach 
to  their  Lordships. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  the  revived  loyalty 
displayed  by  the  Convention,  I  must  notice  the 
violent  manifestation  of  opposite  feelings  by  a  portion 
of  the  Commonwealth  Army,  Lambert,  one  of  Crom- 
well's officers,  escaped  on  the  9th  of  April  from  the 
Tower,  where  he  had  been  imprisoned,  and,  gathering 
around  him  some  of  his  comrades,  marched  into  the 
Midland  Counties,  hoping  successfully  to  raise  a 
standard  in  support  of  Republicanism.  Ludlow  and 
Scott  had  before  this  been  preparing  for  such  a  move- 
ment;  and,  it  is  said,  that  despondency  of  success 
alone  prevented  Haselrig  from  drawing  his  sword.* 
The  French  Ambassador,  writing  on  the  3rd  of  May  to 
Cardinal  Mazarin,  thus  describes  the  actual  outbreak 
which  followed  : — f 

"  Great  alarm,"  he  says,  "  has  been  felt  about  an 
insurrection  of  Sectaries  in  different  localities ;  some 
*  Ludlow's  "Memoirs/'  II.  865.  t  Guizot,  II.  411. 


58  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

had  assembled  in  the  neighbourhood  of  York,  with  the 
intention  of  taking  it  by  surprise;  and,  at  the  distance 
of  twenty  leagues  from  London,  Colonel  Lambert  had 
gathered  together  a  body  of  cavalry,  which  the  first 
accounts  stated  to  consist  of  three  hundred  men. 
Orders  were  immediately  given  to  send  against  him 
most  of  the  troops  which  are  in  London  ;  the  levy  of 
the  London  militia  was  directed  to  hold  itself  in  readi- 
ness, and  that  of  several  counties,  which  has  not  been 
set  on  foot,  to  be  placed  wathin  the  hands  of  persons 
considered  to  be  too  violent  Royalists,  was  also  ordered 
out.  At  the  same  time,  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
Sectaries,  both  in  this  city  and  in  the  country,  were 
arrested,  and  the  General  was  making  preparations  to 
go  and  attack  Lambert  before  he  could  increase  his 
forces  ;  but  news  arrived,  at  the  end  of  last  week,  that 
he  had  only  two  or  three  hundred  men ;  and,  this 
morning,  we  were  informed  of  his  defeat  by  a  party  of 
six  hundred  horse,  without  much  bloodshed  ;  his  troops 
having  abandoned  him  one  after  another,  he  was  taken 
prisoner  with  a  few  others  who  have  been  officers  in 
the  Army,  and  they  are  on  their  way  to  London.  The 
militia  were  immediately  countermanded,  and  the 
universal  topic  of  conversation  now  is  the  punishment 
of  the  offenders,  whose  leader  was  proclaimed  a  traitor 
on  the  day  before  yesterday.  His  capture  seems 
entirely  to  ruin  all  his  party,  against  which  the  people 
entertain  so  great  an  aversion,  that,  unless  the  old 
troops  had  mutinied,  it  could  not  have  met  with  better 
fortune.  Some  Royalists  could  have  wished  it  to  hold 
out  a  little  longer,  in  the  hope  that  the  present 
authorities  would  have  been  thereby  compelled  to 
hasten  the  return  of  the  King  upon  more  advantageous 
conditions,  whereas  they  will  now  have  entire  liberty  to 


1G60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  59 

act,  and  Avill,  perhaps,  impose  harsher  conditions,  as 
they  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Sectaries." 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  troops  employed  by  the 
Council  of  State  to  crush  Lambert's  outbreak  were  led 
by  Ingoldsby,  one  of  Oliver  Cromwell's  attached  officers ; 
and,  amongst  those  acting  under  him  on  this  occasion, 
was  the  Fifth  Monarchist,  Colonel  Okey.  Republi- 
canism, at  that  moment,  was  a  house  divided  against 
itself;  and  very  different  were  the  subsequent  fortunes 
of  the  two  men  just  mentioned.  Ingoldsby's  previous 
support  of  Cromwell  obtained  Royal  forgiveness  on 
account  of  his  defeating  Lambert  ;  the  dark  fate  which 
befell  Okey  will  be  noticed  hereafter.  The  rash  attempt 
thus  promptly  resisted,  and  speedily  suppressed,  was, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  the  result  of  a  feeling  more 
widely  diffused  than  the  limited  action  of  the  Com- 
monwealth soldiery,  as  just  described,  would  by  itself 
indicate.  The  Civil  Wars  had  proceeded  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  it  is  justifiable  to  defend  by  arms  what  is 
deemed  the  cause  of  freedom  ;  and,  at  this  juncture, 
Charles  had  not  yet  returned,  he  was  not,  in  fact,  King 
of  England  ;  therefore  Republicans  might  naturally 
feel  all  the  more  satisfied  in  resisting  his  restoration, 
as  that  restoration,  in  their  opinion,  would  be  a  revolu- 
tionary act,  overthrowing  the  Commonwealth,  a  form 
of  English  government  won  by  Parliamentary  Armies, 
and  established  by  the  decisions  of  the  Legislature.* 

When  May-day  had  arrived,  with  its  vernal  memories 
and  hopes  stirring  the  hearts  of  Royalists  all  over  the 
country,  Mr.  Annesley  reported   to   the  Commons  a 

*  There  are  letters  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  dated  1660,  4th 
and  8th  of  the  second  month,  referring  to  projected  msurrections  ; 
but  when  I  examined  them  they  seemed  to  be  fabrications  intended 
to  serve  a  purpose.  This  was  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Bruce,  and  Sir 
T.  D.  Hardy,  as  well  as  my  own. 


6o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

letter  from  the  King,  unopened,  directed  to  "  Our  trusty 
and  well-beloved  General  Monk,  to  be  communicated 
to  the  President  and  Council  of  State,  and  to  the 
Officers  of  the  Armies  under  his  command."  He  stated 
that  Sir  John  Grenville,  a  Royal  messenger,  was  at  the 
door.  Permitted  by  a  vote  to  approach  the  bar,  this 
gentleman  proceeded  to  announce  that  he  had  been 
commanded  by  the  King,  his  master,  to  deliver  a  letter 
directed  to  "  Our  trusty  and  well-beloved  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons."  Inclosed  within  the  letter 
was  a  declaration,  given  under  the  King's  sign-manual 
and  privy  signet,  at  his  Court  at  Breda.  When  the 
messenger  had  withdrawn,  both  communications  were 
read  aloud  by  Sir  Harbottle  Grimston.  They  are 
entered  in  the  "  Journals  ;  "  so  also  is  Monk's  letter. 
Immediately  afterwards  the  same  messenger  delivered 
a  letter  "  To  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Peers,  and 
the  Lords  there  assembled ; "  that  letter  inclosing  the 
same  declaration  as  had  been  communicated  to  the 
Commons.* 

The  last-named  document,  which  soon  became  so 
famous,  states  that  Charles  had  never  given  up  the 
hope  of  recovering  his  rights,  that  he  did  not  more 
desire  to  enjoy  what  was  his  own,  than  that  his  subjects 
by  law  might  enjoy  what  was  theirs  ;  that  he  would 
grant  a  free  pardon  under  the  Great  Seal  to  all  who 
should  lay  hold  of  his  grace  and  favour  within  forty 
days,  save  those  only  who  should  be  excepted  by  Act 
of  Parliament ;  and  that  he  desired  all  notes  of  discord 
and   separation   should   be   utterly   abolished.      Then 

*  See  "Journals"  of  both  Houses,  ist  of  May.  When  ex- 
amining, some  years  ago,  the  papers  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
belonging  to  that  period,  I  saw  the  original  letter  from  Charles, 
but  not  the  Declaration. 


1660. j         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  6r 

came  the  following  clause  : — "  And,  because  the  passion 
and  uncharitableness  of  the  times  have  produced  several 
opinions  in  religion,  by  which  men  are  engaged  in 
parties  and  animosities  against  each  other,  which,  when 
they  shall  hereafter  unite  in  a  freedom  of  conversation, 
will  be  composed  or  better  understood  ;  Ave  do  declare 
a  liberty  to  tender  consciences,  and  that  no  man  shall 
be  disquieted  or  called  in  question,  for  differences  of 
opinion  in  matter,  of  religion  which  do  not  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  kingdom,  and  that  we  shall  be  ready  to 
consent  to  such  an  Act  of  Parliament,  as,  upon  mature 
deliberation,  shall  be  offered  to  us  for  the  full  granting 
that  indulgence."  In  conclusion,  there  appeared  a 
promise  to  refer  to  Parliament  all  grants  and  purchases 
made  by  officers  and  soldiers  who  might  be  liable  to 
actions  at  law,  and  to  pay  arrears  due  to  the  Army. 

A  conference  took  place  the  same  afternoon  between 
the  Lords  and  Commons,  when  it  was  agreed  that, 
according  to  the  ancient  and  fundamental  laws  of  the 
kingdom,  the  Government  is  and  ought  to  be  by  King, 
Lords,  and  Commons, — a  conclusion  of  the  two  Houses 
which  formally  re-established  Monarchy  in  England. 
Amidst  all  this  haste  there  were  not  wanting  some 
who,  to  use  Clarendon's  words,  "  thought  that  the  guilt 
of  the  nation  did  require  less  precipitation  than  was 
like  to  be  used,  and  that  the  treaty  ought  first  to  be 
made  with  the  King,  and  conditions  of  security  agreed 
on  before  His  Majesty  should  be  received."  The  Pres- 
byterians in  Parliament,  he  further  says,  were  "  solicitous 
that  somewhat  should  be  concluded  in  veneration  of 
the  Covenant  ;  and,  at  least,  that  somewhat  should  be 
inserted  in  their  answer  to  the  discountenance  of  the 
Bishops."*  Sir  Matthew  Hale  moved,  that  a  Com- 
*  Clarendon's  "  Hist.,"  904. 


62  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IT. 

mittee  might  be  appointed  to  consider  the  propositions 
which  had  been  made  to  Charles  I.  at  Newport,  and 
the  concessions  then  allowed  by  him,  as  affording 
materials  for  a  constitutional  compact  with  the  Prince 
now  about  to  ascend  the  throne.  But  no  more  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  wise  lawyer  than  to  the  zealous 
Presbyterians.  Monk  assured  the  House  that  the 
nation  was  now  quiet,  but  he  could  not  answer  for  the 
public  tranquillity  should  the  Restoration  be  delayed.* 
At  the  same  time,  the  General  was  quietly  seeking  to 
accelerate  the  execution  of  his  plans  by  pressing  Sharp, 
the  agent  in  London  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterians,  to 
go  over  to  the  King  at  Breda,  "  to  deal  that  he  might 
write  a  letter  to  Mr.  Calamy,  to  be  communicated  to 
the  Presbyterian  ministers,  showing  his  resolution  to 
own  the  godly,  sober  party,  and  to  stand  for  the  true 
Protestant  religion  in  the  power  of  it."  f 

Upon  the  2nd  of  May  the  House  resolved  to  send  a 
grateful  letter  to  His  Majesty,  together  with  a  grant 
of  ^50,000  for  his  immediate  use ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  it  was  resolved  to  proclaim  King  Charles  the 
following  day,  a  ceremony  duly  performed  in  Palace 
Yard,  Westminster,  and  at  Temple  Bar,  London. 
Sermons  were  delivered  before  the  Houses,  and  Richard 
Baxter  preached  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  before  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  the  Corporation,  one  of  his  most 
spiritual  and  earnest  discourses,  entitled  "  Right  Re- 
joicing:" with  this  discourse,  the  preacher  says,  the 
moderate  were  pleased  and  the  fanatics  were  offended, 
whilst  the  diocesan  party  thought  he  did  suppress  their 
joy.     Speedily  the  Proclamation  was  repeated  through- 

*  Burnet's  "Hist,  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  88. 
t  Kennet's  "  Register,"  1 29.     Sharp  afterwards  became  Arch- 
bishop Sharp. 


ICCO.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  63 

out  the  kingdom,  and  everywhere  revived  loyalty  took 
a  tinge  from  its  ecclesiastical  associations.  In  cities, 
where  Episcopalians  retained  ascendency,  scarlet  gowns, 
scaffolds  covered  with  red  cloth,  volleys  fired  by  mus- 
queteers,  and  cathedral  men  singing  anthems,  appeared 
conspicuously  in  the  arrangements.  A  diarist  of  that 
period  thus  describes  what  he  witnessed  on  the  12th 
of  May : — "  This  day,  at  the  city  of  Worcester,  were 
placed  on  high  four  scaffolds,  one  at  the  Cross,  two  at 
the  Corn-market,  three  at  the  Knole  End,  four  at  or 
near  All-Hallows'  Well.  The  scaffold  at  the' Cross  was 
encompassed  with  green,  white,  and  purple  colours  ; 
the  two  first  as  his  own  colours,  being  Prince,  the  third 
as  King.  Mr.  Ashby,  the  Mayor,  a  Mercer,  and  all 
Aldermen  in  scarlet,  the  Sheriff  of  the  City,  the  24  and 
48  in  their  liveries  ;  each  trade  and  freeman  marching 
with  their  colours.  First  went  100  trained  city  band- 
men,  after  their  captain,  Alderman  Vernon.  Then 
came  the  Sheriffs,  Thos.  Coventry,  Esq.,  the  Lord 
Coventry's  eldest  son,  servants  ;  then  the  two  Army 
companies ;  then  the  several  livery  companies  with 
their  showmen  or  band  ;  then  the  City  Officers  ;  then 
the  Mace  and  Sword-bearers  ;  then  the  Mayor,  with 
the  High  Sheriff  and  some  gentlemen ;  then  all  the 
24  and  48  ;  then  part  of  a  troop  of  horse  of  the  Army. 
The  Mayor,  mounting  the  scaffold  with  the  gentlemen 
and  Aldermen,  Mr.  John  Ashby,  reading  softly  by 
degrees  the  Proclamation  of  Charles  II.,  to  be  King 
of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and  Ireland  ;  the  Mayor 
himself  spoke  it  aloud  to  all  the  people  ;  which  done, 
all  with  a  shout  said,  '  God  save  the  King.'  Then  all 
guns  went  off,  and  sw^ords  drawn  and  flourishing  over 
their  heads,  drums  beating  and  trumpets  blowing,  loud 
music  playing  before  the  Mayor  and  company,  to  every 


64  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

scaffold,  which  was  done  in  the  same  manner  through- 
out ;  and  all  finished,  the  Mayor  and  City  gave  wine 
and  biscuits  in  the  chamber  liberally.  Bonfires  made 
at  night  throughout  the  City,  and  the  King's  health 
with  wine  was  drank  freely.  Never  such  a  concourse 
of  people  seen  upon  so  short  a  notice,  with  high  re- 
joicings and  acclamations  for  the  restoring  of  the  King. 
God  guard  him  from  his  enemies  as  He  ever  hath  done 
most  miraculously,  and  send  him  a  prosperous  peaceable 
reign,  and  long  healthful  life,  for  the  happiness  of  his 
subjects,  who  is  their  delight."  * 

In  places  where  Presbyterianism  prevailed  the  cere- 
mony differed.  At  Sherborne  the  Proclamation  followed 
"solemn  prayers,  praises,  and  seasonable  premonition 
in  the  Church."  At  Manchester,  Henry  Newcome  went 
into  the  pulpit  and  prayed  about  half  an  hour.  At 
Northampton  "  Mr.  Ford,  the  minister,  went  with 
several  others  to  a  great  bonfire  in  the  Market-place, 
when,  after  a  suitable  exhortation,  he  joined  them  in 
singing  the  twenty-first  Psalm."  At  Northenbury, 
Philip  Henry  preached  a  discourse,  congratulatory  and 
thanksgiving,  from  the  words,  "  The  king's  heart  is  in 
the  hand  of  the  Lord"  (Proverbs  xxi.  i)  ;  but,  many 
years  afterwards,  he  dated  a  letter  29th  of  May,  as  a 
day  in  which  the  bitter  was  mingled  with  the  sweet.f 

Every  lover  of  peace  will  rejoice  that  the  Restoration 
was  a  bloodless  change  ;  but  the  mode  of  deciding  upon 
it  suggests  grave  reflections.  After  a  long  period  of 
strife  spent  in  order  to  bring  within  limits  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  Crown  ;  after  the  desperate  remedies  which 

*  MS.  Diary  of  Henry  Townshend,  of  Elmley  Lovet,  Worces- 
tershire. 

t  "  Public  Intelligencer,"  No.  20.  "  Newcome's  Diary,"  pub- 
lished by  the  Cheetham  Societ)',  and  "  Life  of  Philip  Henry,"  59. 


1C60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  65 

had  been  adopted  for  the  cure  of  evils  brought  on  by 
Royal  aggression  ;  after  all  which  had  been  done  to 
resist  and  overcome  the  intolerance  of  the  High  Church 
party,  the  nation  invited  Charles  Stuart  back  without 
any  condition,  and  opened  the  way  for  the  re-establish 
ment  of  the  old  order  of  things,  without  any  provision 
against  the  recurrence  of  mischief.  Such  a  proceeding,, 
to  say  the  least,  exposed  the  country  to  imminent 
hazard  ;  and  the  history  of  the  next  eight  and  twenty 
years  proves  that  the  fears  which  were  entertained  by 
a  few  were  but  too  well  founded.  The  old  Stuart  dis- 
position and  habits  reappeared,  the  old  ecclesiastical 
intolerance  returned,  and  the  Revolution  of  1688  was 
found  necessary  to  supply  the  defects  of  the  Restoration 
of  1660.  Yet,  after  all,  the  mode  of  the  Restoration 
excites  less  surprise  than  lamentation.  For  it  is  easy 
to  understand  how  natural  it  was  for  the  Royalist 
party,  even  the  more  moderate  portion  of  it,  to  feel 
extremely  anxious  to  accomplish  the  one  thing  which 
at  that  critical  juncture  seemed  to  them  so  necessary. 
As  in  private  affairs,  as  in  the  exigencies  of  domestic  and 
social  life,  people  are  apt  precipitately  to  adopt  a  certain 
course,  at  the  moment  appearing  indispensable,  flatter- 
ing themselves  that  afterwards,  with  proper  care,  any 
seriously  unpleasant  results  may  be  prevented  or  cured,, 
that  matters  can  be  made  all  right  in  the  end  :  so  the 
leaders  of  the  English  people,  at  that  moment,  felt  the 
question  to  be  Restoration  or  Ruin  ;  and  that,  the  grand 
pre-requisite  for  renewed  prosperity  being  secured,  other 
desirable  things  could  be  afterwards  shaped  according 
to  pleasure  or  circumstances.  Besides,  the  Presby- 
terians clung  to  the  Breda  Declaration  as  a  sheet 
anchor  of  hope.  It  was  thought  then,  and  is  still  so 
thought  by  some,  that  however  theoretically  desirable 

VOL.   III.  F 


66  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

stipulations  might  have  been,  it  was  practically  unwise 
to  insist  upon  them  at  the  time  ;  that  delay  in  nego- 
tiation with  the  exiled   Prince  tended  to  involve  the 
country  in  fresh  confusions,  and  exposed  it  to  the  risk 
of  a  military   despotism  ;    and   that  what  Parliament 
could  not  then  safely  wait  to  do  might  be  effected  after- 
wards.    When  all  reasonable  palliations  of  the  course 
adopted  are  made,  that  course  is  now  seen  to  have 
been  an  enormous  mistake.     The  dangers  of  a  little 
delay  have  been  assumed,  not  proved — there  could  be 
no  probability  of  losing  the  chance  of  restoring  Charles 
had  Parliament  determined  beforehand  to  bind  him  to 
terms.     He  would  gladly  have  accepted  the  Royalty 
of  England,  with  such  guarantees  for  public  liberty  as 
were  accorded  by  William  III.     And  as  to  the  Army, 
from  which  chiefly  alarm  arose,  it  does  not  appear  how 
the  difficulty  of  keeping  Republican  soldiers  quiet  for 
a   month  or  so,   whilst   pacific   men  were   engaged   in 
laying    foundations  for  the  stability  of  their  liberties, 
could  be  greater  than  the  difficulty  of  keeping  those 
same  soldiers  quiet  between  the  decision  for  the  King's 
return  and  his  actual  arrival.    Possible  evils,  in  the  form 
of  political  intrigues,  the  conflict  of  parties,  the  further 
unsettlement  of  the  country,  and  the  postponement  of 
the  Restoration,  might  be  imagined  as  the  result   of 
delay  ;  but  over  against  them  we  are  justified  in  placing 
the  evil  which  did  come  as  the  consequence  of  haste. 
And  with  regard  to  expectations  resting  on  a  future 
Parliament,  the  Parliament  now  sitting  could  not  calcu- 
late upon  what  the   character  and  proceedings  of  its 
successor  might  be.     That  which  really  prevented  any 
conditions  from  being  imposed  on  the  returning  Prince, 
was  the  want  of  a  few  wise  heads  and  a  few  stout  hearts. 
Who  can  believe  that  if  Pym  or   Hampden,  or  even 


IGGO.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  67 

Falkland,  had  been  members  of  the  Convention,  matters 
would  have  been  managed  as  they  were  ?  I  cannot  but 
think  that  during  the  infinitely  momentous  weeks  which 
made  up  that  month  of  May,  such  men  would  have 
little  heeded  the  voting  of  jewels  to  Royal  messengers, 
and  decisions  respecting  State  beds  and  State  coaches 
things  which  occupied  the  Houses  for  some  time,  but 
would  rather  have  thrown  themselves  heart  and  soul 
into  the  work  of  building  up  some  safe  and  sure  defence 
against  the  return  of  arbitrary  government  and  eccle- 
siastical intolerance.  But  England  was  wanting  in 
great  Statesmen.  There  remained  one  wise,  good  man 
who  proposed  a  pause  for  the  arrangement  of  con- 
ditions :  but  another  man,  selfish  and  unprincipled,  put 
him  down.  It  is  deplorable  to  think  of  a  Parliament 
in  which  Monk  silenced  Hale.* 

Certain  Presbyterian  ministers,  Reynolds,  Calamy, 
Manton,  and  Case,  accompanied  a  deputation  to  Charles 
to  express  the  loyalty  of  the  citizens.  Pepys  gives  the 
amusing  information,  that,  as  he  was  posting  in  a  coach 
to  Scheveling,  the  wind  being  very  high,  he  "  saw  two 
boats  overset,  and  the  gallants  forced  to  be  pulled  on 
shore  by  the  heels,  while  their  trunks,  portmanteaus, 
hats,  and  feathers  were  swimming  in  the  sea ;  "  the 
ministers  that  came  with  the  Commissioners — Mr.  Case 
amongst  the  rest — were  "  sadly  dripped."  f  The  King 
resided  at  the  Hague,  and  to  that  pleasant  Dutch  town 
the  reverend  brethren  proceeded  without  delay ;  they 
were  graciously  received.  They  assured  Charles,  that 
in  obedience  to  the  Covenant,  they  had  urged  upon  the 
people  the  duty  of  restoring  him  ;   and,  after  thanking 

*  Hale's  reflections  on  the  crisis  may  be  seen  in  his  "  ]\Iemoirs  " 
by  Wilhams,  63-65. 

t  Pepys'  "  Diary"  (May  15th),  I.  62. 


68  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IL 

God  for  His  Majest)''s  constancy  to  the  Protestant 
religion,  they  declared  themselves  by  no  means  inimical 
to  moderate  Episcopacy  ;  they  only  desired  that  in 
religion,  things  held  indifferent  by  those  who  used 
them,  should  not  be  imposed  upon  the  consciences  of 
others  to  whom  they  appeared  unlawful.  The  first  in- 
terview seems  to  have  passed  off  pleasantly  ;  another 
audience  was  sought  by  the  clergymen  for  closer  con- 
versation. The  Scotch  were  very  earnest  for  an  ex- 
clusive Presbyterian  Establishment  in  England.  They 
had  frequent  correspondence  with  Sharp,  now  in  Hol- 
land, and  they  urged  him  to  remember  the  great  incon- 
venience Avhich  would  ensue  if  the  King  used  the 
Prayer  Book  upon  returning  to  his  dominions.*  Whether 
or  not  Sharp  (then  believed  to  be  a  zealous  Presbyterian) 
influenced  the  London  ministers,  it  is  certain  the}^ 
adopted  an  intolerant  policy.  Admitted  once  more  to 
the  Royal  presence  f  they  told  His  Majesty  that  the 
people  were  unaccustomed  to  the  Common  Prayer,  and 
it  would  be  much  wondered  at,  if,  as  soon  as  he  landed, 

*  Kennet's  "  Register,"  146. 

t  In  "The  Secret  History  of  the  Reign  of  Charles  II.  and 
James  II.,"  1690 — a  book  not  very  trustworthy — we  have  the 
original  of  the  story,  often  repeated,  respecting  Mr.  Case,  "  who. 
with  the  rest  of  the  brethren  coming  where  the  King  lay,  and 
desiring  to  be  admitted  into  the  King's  presence,  were  carried 
into  the  chamber  next  or  very  near  to  the  King's  closet,  but  told 
withal  that  the  King  was  busy  at  his  devotions,  and  that  till  he 
had  done  they  must  be  contented  to  stay.  Being  thus  left  alone, 
by  contrivance  no  doubt,  and  hearing  a  sound  of  groaning  piety, 
such  was  the  curiosity  of  Mr.  Case,  that  he  would  needs  go  and 
lay  his  ear  to  the  closet  door.  By  hea\ens,  how  was  the  good 
old  man  ravished  to  hear  the  pious  ejaculations  that  fell  from  the 
King's  lips  :  '  Lord,  since  Thou  art  pleased  to  restore  me  to  the 
throne  of  my  ancestors,  grant  me  a  heart  constant  in  the  exercise 
and  protection  of  thy  true  Protestant  religion.  Never  may  I  seek 
the  oppression  of  those  who  out  of  tenderness  to  their  consciences, 
are  not  free  to  conform  to  outward  and  indifferent  ceremonies.' " 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  69 

he  should  introduce  it  in  his  own  chapel.  They  begged, 
at  all  events,  that  he  would  not  use  it  entirely,  but 
only  some  parts  of  it,  and  permit  extempore  prayers 
by  his  chaplains.  The  King  replied,  reasonably  enough, 
and  with  some  warmth,  "  that  whilst  tliey  sought  liberty, 
he  wished  to  enjoy  the  same  himself."  He  professed 
his  strong  attachment  to  the  Liturgy,  and  said,  although 
he  would  not  severely  inquire  about  the  use  of  it  else- 
where he  would  certainly  have  it  in  his  own  chapel. 
Then  they  besought  him  not  to  have  the  surplice  worn, 
upon  which  he  declared  he  would  not  himself  be 
restrained  whilst  giving  so  much  liberty  to  others  ;  a 
declaration  proper  enough  had  he  adhered  to  both 
parts  of  it.  Whatever  the  Presbyterian  deputation 
might  have  said,  probably  it  would  have  made  little 
difference  as  to  the  issue  ;  yet  all  must  see  how  foolishly 
they  committed  themselves  at  the  very  commencement 
of  their  negotiations,  giving  Charles  and  his  Court  too 
much  ground  for  meeting  the  charge  of  Episcopal  in- 
tolerance by  the  accusation  of  Presbyterian  bigotry. 

Upon  the  following  Sunday,  Mr.  Hardy,  one  of  the 
ministers,  preached  before  the  King  at  the  Hague,  when 
some  amusing  circumstances  occurred.  The  place  ap- 
pointed for  the  service  was  the  French  Church,  and  it 
was  arranged  that  the  English  worship  should  begin  as 
soon  as  the  French  should  end.  Crowds  came  from 
the  neighbouring  towns  to  see  the  Monarch  and  his 
retinue.  Precautions  were  adopted  to  prevent  their 
admission  in  a  way  which  might  inconvenience  the 
illustrious  worshippers,  and  particular  care  was  taken 
to  reserve  for  the  Court  a  pew  "  clothed  with  black 
velvet,  and  covered  with  a  canopy  of  the  same  stuff" 
But  another  contingency  had  not  been  contemplated, 
the  difficulty  of  dismissing  those  already  in  the  build- 


70  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  II. 

ing  before  others  were  admitted.  The  French  con- 
gregation wished  to  wait  and  witness  the  subsequent 
worship,  and  Dutch  persons  of  distinction,  occupying  the 
velvet  pew,  would  not  retire.  The  French  ministers 
urged  them  to  withdraw,  but  there  they  were,  and  there 
they  would  remain.  The  people  in  possession  out- 
witted the  rest,  and  outwitted  themselves  too  ;  for  the 
church  being  crammed,  and  no  more  being  able  to 
enter,  the  King  gave  up  the  idea  of  going  into  it,  and 
attended  Divine  service  in  a  private  room,  with  as  many 
of  the  Lords  as  the  place  would  accommodate.  Mr, 
Hardy  preached  from  Isaiah  xxvi.  19,  "and  made  so 
learned  and  so  pathetic  a  discourse  that  there  was  not 
any  one  there  which  was  not  touched  and  edified  there- 
with." *  After  the  Liturgy  and  sermon  the  King, 
according  to  a  long  and  elaborate  ceremonial,  touched 
certain  persons  afflicted  with  "  the  evil." 

Whilst  the  Presbyterians  were  active  the  Episco- 
palians were  not  idle.  The  Bishops  despatched  Mr. 
Barwick  to  Breda  with  a  loyal  address  to  His  Majesty, 
and  letter  of  thanks  to  Hyde,  now  made  Chancellor. 
Barwick  was  instructed  to  report  upon  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  and  to  bring  back  the  Royal  commands,  par- 
ticularly as  to  which  of  the  Bishops  should  pay  their 
duty  upon  their  Master's  landing,  whether  they  should 
present  themselves  in  their  Episcopal  habits,  and  also 
as  to  the  appointment  of  Court  Chaplains.  Since  it 
had  been  customary  for  the  Kings  of  England  to  return 
public  thanksgivings  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  on  great 
occasions,  Barwick  inquired  what  was  the  Royal  pleasure 
respecting  the  place  in  which  such  service  should  be 
held,  seeing  the  ruinous  condition  of  the  Metropolitan 
Church    at  that  time .''     He    met  with  a  gracious  rc- 

*  Rennet's  "  Register,"  under  date  May  20th. 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTO RATIO X.  71 

ception,  and  on  the  Sunday  after  his  arrival  preached 
before  the  King.  The  Episcopalians  in  England  very 
naturally  were  filled  with  joy.  As  early  as  the  month 
of  March  one  gave  expression  to  it  in  violent  language 
from  the  pulpit.  The  prudent  Chancellor  at  Breda 
hearing  of  these  intemperate  effusions,  had  written,  in 
April,  begging  that  the  Episcopalian  clergy  would 
restrain  their  tempers.  "  And  truly  I  hope,"  he  added, 
"  if  faults  of  this  kind  are  not  committed  that  both  the 
Church  and  the  Kingdom  will  be  better  dealt  with 
than  is  imagined  ;  and  I  am  confident  those  good  men 
will  be  more  troubled  that  the  Church  should  undergo 
a  new  suffering  by  their  indiscretion  than  for  all  that 
they  have  suffered  hitherto  themselves."  * 

*  Barwick's  "  Life,"  270,  520. 


72  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Charles,  on  his  way  to  England,  had  reason  for  care 
and  forethought.  Never  had  an  English  Prince  come 
to  the  throne  under  such  circumstances.  A  civil  war 
was  just  over,  the  swelling  of  the  storm  had  hardly- 
ceased  ;  a  party  adverse  to  that  which  the  King  re- 
garded as  his  own  remained  in  power  ;  many  were 
expecting  at  his  hand  favours  for  recent  service,  in 
spite  of  former  offences ;  Presbyterians  looked  at  least 
for  comprehension  within  the  Establishment.  Inde- 
pendents, Baptists,  Quakers,  asked  for  toleration,  and 
'Roman  Catholics,  who  had  been  friends  to  the  beheaded 
father  and  the  exiled  son,  thought  themselves  entitled 
to  some  measure  of  religious  liberty.  The  Episcopal 
Church  claimed  the  new  Monarch  as  her  own  ;  her 
prelates  and  ministers  were  waiting  to  welcome  him, 
to  open  in  the  parish  churches  once  more  the  beautiful 
old  Prayer  Book,  with  its  litanies  and  collects  for  the 
King  and  his  family.  They  sought  exclusive  re-estab- 
lishment ;  they  would  cast  out  all  Presbyterian  intruders, 
they  would  tolerate  no  Sectaries.  Here  were  perplexing 
circumstances  to  be  encountered.  The  Breda  Declara- 
tion had  bound  Charles  to  be  considerate  in  dealing 
with  religious  matters,  to  show  respect  for  tender 
consciences.      Comprehension,  and  toleration,  he  stood 


IGGO.]         Tim   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  73 

pledged  to  promote.  But  how  were  the  problems  to 
be  solved  ?  He  was  a  Constitutional  King.  He  was 
to  rule  through  Parliaments.  Should  bigotry  arise  and 
carry  all  before  it  in  the  Commons'  House,  as  elsewhere, 
what  was  he  to  do  1  Should  his  Ministers  differ  from 
him,  how  then  }  Such  possibilities  gazed  at  by  a 
thoughtful  man  might  well  have  made  him  anxious,  if 
not  alarmed.  Who  would  not  sympathize  with  any 
conscientious  prince  under  such  circumstances  }  Charles 
possessed  certain  intellectual  and  social  qualities  which 
fitted  him  for  the  task  he  had  now  to  perform  ;  for  he 
had  common  sense,  was  keen  and  clever,  with  quick 
insight  into  character,  made  still  more  so  by  large 
acquaintance  with  human  nature,  he  knew  how  to  put 
unpleasant  things  in  a  pleasant  way,  could  command 
considerable  powers  of  persuasion  when  he  liked,  and 
was  courteous,  affable,  and  of  winning  manners.  But 
he  was  not  thoughtful,  not  conscientious  ;  he  lacked 
the  two  things  which  alone  could  enable  him  to  turn 
his  abilities  and  experience  to  good  account.  The 
crown  was  to  him  a  toy  ;  the  throne  a  chair  of  pleasure, 
at  best,  of  pompous  state.  The  heedless,  folly-loving 
prince  takes  himself  quite  out  of  the  range  of  our 
sympathies,  and  leaves  us  to  condemn  the  breach  of 
his  plighted  faith,  and  all  the  intolerance  incident  to 
his  return.  A  useless  controversy  was  once  carried  on 
as  to  whether  he  was  really  a  Papist  at  the  time  of  the 
Restoration.  It  is  idle  to  dispute  respecting  the  theo- 
logical opinions  of  a  man  so  utterly  destitute  of  religious 
feeling  and  thoughtfulncss.  That  he  was  not  a  Pro- 
testant at  the  time,  meaning  by  the  word  a  person 
attached  to  the  Reformed  faith,  is  plain  enough  from 
what  is  said  by  those  who  knew  him  best.  Probably 
Buckingham,    who    calls   him    a    Deist,   is  nearest  the 


74  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

truth.*  But  that  he  had  sympathies  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  party,  and  considered  their  Church  as  the 
most  convenient  for  an  easy-hving  gentleman  like  him- 
self, there  can  be  no  doubt.  Had  death  stared  him  in 
the  face  just  after  his  return,  he  would  probably  have 
sought  refuge  in  confession  and  priestly  absolution,  as 
he  did  twenty-five  years  later.  Yet  he  professed  to 
be  a  Protestant  by  solemn  kingly  acts,  and  in  other 
ways  when  he  thought  it  politic.  Charles  was  a  dis- 
sembler.! He  had,  with  all  his  occasional  rollicking 
frankness,  an  almost  equal  mastery  over  his  conversa- 
tion and  his  countenance.  His  face,  encompassed  by 
flowing  black  locks,  illuminated  by  lustrous  eyes,  was 
said  to  be  as  little  a  blab  as  most  men's  :  it  might  tell 
tales  to  a  good  physiognomist,  but  it  was  no  prattler 
to  people  in  general.  If  he  had  a  wish  to  conceal  his 
purpose,  he  could  do  it  effectually.  Lord  Halifax 
apologized  for  him  by  saying,  that  if  he  dissembled  it 
is  to  be  remembered  "that  dissimulation  is  a  jewel  of 
the  crown,"  and  that  "  it  is  very  hard  for  a  man  not  to 
do  sometimes  too  much  of  that  which  he  concludeth 
necessary  for  him  to  practise."  % 

Monk  proceeded  to  Dover  May  the  22nd.  Numbers 
of  the  nobility  and  gentry  wished  to  follow  him,  and 
he  arranged  that  they  should  march  in  companies,  in 
differently  coloured  uniforms,  under  certain  noblemen, 
who  were  to  act  as  captains  of  these  loyal  bands.  They 
had  not  fought  any  of  Monk's  battles  ;  they  came  in 
now  to  swell  Monk's  triumph.  As  the  General  was 
standing  at  a  window  in  the  City  of  Canterbury,  while 

*  Buckingham's  "  Works,"  II.  55-  See  Harris's  "  Lives,"  V.  52, 
ci  scg.,  for  evidence  as  to  his  being  a  Papist. 

t  See  what  Harris  has  collected  on  this  subject,  V.  13,  et  scq. 
X  "  Character  of  Charles  II.,"  56. 


1G60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  75 

they  marched  by  gaily  with  green  scarfs  and  feathers, 
a  friend  observed,  "You  had  none  of  these  at  Cold- 
stream, General ;  but  grasshoppers  and  butterflies  never 
come  abroad  in  frosty  weather,  and,  at  the  best,  never 
abound  in  Scotland." 

On  Friday,  the  25th  of  May,  at  one  o'clock,  Charles 
landed  at  Dover  ;  and,  notwithstanding  his  levity,  his 
heart  surely  must  have  been  touched  as  the  Castle 
guns  gave  him  welcome  ;  and  another  and  far  more 
gladdening  demonstration  proceeded  from  the  ten 
thousands  of  his  subjects,  who  lined  the  pebbly  beach, 
or  looked  down  from  the  old  chalk  cliffs,  waving  their 
broad-brimmed  and  feathered  hats,  and  giving  the 
home-bound  exile  right  hearty  cheers  such  as  only 
Englishmen  can  give.  General  Monk,  with  all  the 
nobility  and  gentr>'  present,  prostrated  themselves 
before  the  Prince  as  he  stepped  ashore,  with  his  plumed 
beaver  in  his  hand  ;  and  some  rushed  forward  to  kiss 
the  hem  of  his  garment,  whilst  he  gracefully  raised 
from  his  knees,  and  embraced  the  soldier,  who  what- 
ever might  be  his  character  in  other  respects,  had 
certainly  proved  the  star  of  his  master's  fortune.  A 
canopy  was  ready  for  His  Majesty,  as  he  walked  to 
the  town  ;  and  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  made  obei- 
sance as  their  chaplain  placed  in  the  Royal  hands  a 
gold-clasped  Bible.     No  Bishop  was  present. 

A  State  coach  stood  in  waiting,  in  which  the  King 
seated  himself,  the  Duke  of  York  by  his  side,  and 
opposite,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester ;  General  Monk  and 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  occupying  the  boot.  Thus 
they  travelled  two  miles  out  of  Dover,  when  they 
mounted  horse,  and  so  proceeded  the  rest  of  the  way 
to  Canterbury,  where  speeches  were  made,  and  a  gold 
tankard  was  presented  to  the  King.     On  the  following* 


76  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

day  several  persons  were  knighted  by  him,  and  Monk, 
the  real  hero  of  the  hour,  was  invested  with  the  Order 
of  the  Garter.  All  went  to  the  Cathedral  on  Sunday, 
when  the  Liturgy  was  used  ;  and  on  Monday  they 
proceeded  to  Rochester,  where  a  basin  and  ewer,  silver- 
gilt,  were  loyally  given,  and  graciously  accepted.  Be- 
tween four  and  five  o'clock  on  Tuesday  morning,  they 
started  again,  "  the  militia  forces  of  Kent  lining  the 
ways,  and  maidens  strewing  herbs  and  flowers,  and 
the  several  towns  hanging  out  white  sheets."  At 
Dartford,  certain  regiments  of  cavalry  presented  an 
address,  and  at  Blackheath,  the  old  Army  appeared 
drawn  up  to  meet  the  very  Monarch  against  whom  so 
many  of  them  had  been  fighting.  The  vexation  felt 
at  this  termination  of  the  great  change  inaugurated  by 
the  Civil  Wars  must  have  touched  many  a  Republican 
to  the  quick ;  and  at  the  moment  of  their  chagrin 
rapturous  feelings  filled  many  a  noble  Royalist,  like 
those  which  inspired  the  Nunc  dimittis  of  Sir  Henry 
Lee,  so  touchingly  described  on  the  last  page  of  Scott's 
^'  Woodstock." 

At  St.  George's-in-the-Field  the  Corporation  of 
London  waited  in  a  tent  to  receive  their  Sovereign, 
where  the  Lord  Mayor  presented  the  City  sword,  and 
then  the  procession  slowly  moving  from  Southwark, 
passed  through  the  City  Gates,  crossed  the  pent-up 
alley  of  London  Bridge,  and  marched  on  through 
Cheapside,  Fleet  Street,  and  the  Strand,  the  houses 
all  the  way  adorned  with  tapestry  ;  the  train  bands 
lining  the  streets  on  one  side,  and  the  livery  companies 
on  the  other.  A  troop  of  300  men,  in  cloth  of  silver 
doublets,  led  the  van  ;  then  came  1200  in  velvet  coats, 
with  footmen  in  purple ;  followed  by  another  troop  in 
buff  and  silver,  and  rich  green  scarfs  ;  then  150  in  blue 


1660.]         THE   CHURCir  OF  THE  RESTORATIO.V.  77 

and  silver,  Avith  six  trumpeters  and  seven  footmen  in 
sea-green  and  silver ;  then  a  troop  of  220,  with  30 
footmen  in  grey  and  silver  ;  then  other  troops  in  like 
splendour.  The  Sheriff's  men  in  red  cloaks,  to  the 
number  of  fourscore,  with  half-pikes — and  hundreds  of 
the  companies  on  horseback  in  black  velvet  with  golden 
chains  followed  in  due  order.  Preceded  by  kettle- 
drums and  trumpets,  came  twelve  London  ministers, 
their  Genevan  gowns  and  bands  looking  "  sad  "  amidst 
the  glaring  colours.  The  Life  Guards  followed  :  more 
trumpeters  appeared  in  satin  doublets  ;  and  next,  the 
City  Marshal,  attended  by  footmen  in  French  green 
trimmed  with  white  and  crimson.  The  City  Waits 
succeeded,  and  next  the  Sheriffs  and  the  Aldermen, 
Avith  their  footmen  in  scarlet,  and  with  heralds.  The 
Lord  Mayor  carried  the  Sword  of  State,  and  close  by 
him  rode  Monk  and  the  Duke  of  Buckingham.  Then 
appeared  the  King,  accompanied  by  his  brothers,  York 
and  Gloucester  :  the  Royal  eyes,  black  and  keen,  look- 
ing out  with  gracious  smiles  from  a  sallow  face  on  the 
gathered  thousands,  who,  with  awe  and  delight,  returned 
the  gaze.  Troops,  with  white  flags,  brought  up  the 
rear  ;  and  thus  the  gaudy  and  imposing  pageant  filed 
under  the  very  window,  where  fourteen  years  before 
had  stood  the  scaffold  of  Charles  L* 

As  soon  as  Charles  II.  had  taken  his  seat  on  the 
throne  addresses  flowed  in  from  all  quarters — from  the 
nobility,  the  gentry,  and  the  militia  of  counties  ;  from 
the  Corporations  and  inhabitants  of  towns,  and  from 
divers  religious  bodies.  The  time  had  not  yet  come 
for  Episcopalians  to  address  His  Majesty.  Presby- 
terianism,  recognized  by  the  Convention  as  the  estab- 
hshed  religion,  had  not  been  dethroned  from  its 
*  Kennet,  160-164. 


78  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

supremacy  ;  and  it  was  not  quite  safe  at  present  for 
its  great  rival  ecclesiastical  power  prominently  to  show 
itself.  Silence  in  that  quarter  was  significant.  The 
Roman  Catholics,  many  of  whom  had  sacrificed  much 
for  the  sake  of  the  Stuart  family,  assured  the  King 
of  their  attachment ;  and  distinctly  repudiated  the 
doctrine,  that  the  Pope  can  lay  any  commands  upon 
English  Catholic  subjects  in  civil  and  temporal  matters  ; 
also  the  "  damnable  and  most  un-Christian  position," 
these  are  the  very  words,  "that  kings  or  absolute 
princes,  of  what  belief  soever,  who  are  excommunicated 
by  the  Pope  may  be  deposed,  killed,  or  murthered  by 
their  subjects."  *  Presbyterian  ministers  expressed  the 
warmest  loyalty.  "  Such,"  they  said,  "  of  late  days, 
have  been  the  wonderful  appearances  of  God  towards 
both  your  Royal  self  and  the  people,  that  (when  we 
feared  our  quarrels  should  be  entailed  and  bound  over 
to  posterity)  we  hope  they  all  are  miraculously  taken 
up  in  your  Majesty's  restoration  to  your  Crown  and 
imperial  dignity.  It  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  Provi- 
dence was  eminently  exalted  in  the  work  of  your 
protection  for  many  years  ;  but  it  seems  to  avail  to  the 
efficacy  of  that  grace,  which  hath  prevented  you  from 
putting  forth  your  hands  unto  iniquity,  and  sinful 
compliances  with  the  enemies  of  the  Protestant,  and  in 
disposing  of  the  hearts  of  your  subjects  to  receive  you 
with  loyalty  and  affection."  With  this  expression  of 
loyalty  is  combined  the  utterance  of  hope.  "We 
beseech  you  not  to  give  Him  less  than  He  requires  by 
way  of  gratitude,  of  which  we  are  the  more  confident, 
when  we  consider  your  Majesty's  gracious  letters  to 
both  Houses  of  Parliament,  with  the  enclosed  Declara- 

*  Butler's  "Hist.  Memorials  of  the  Catholics,"  III.  23. 


IGGO.]         THE   CIIURCir  OF   THE  RESTORATION.  79 

tion,  wherein  we  see  your  zeal  for  the  Protestant 
reHgion,  with  a  pitiful  heart  toward  tender  consciences, 
wherein  we  have  assurance  that  the  hail  of  your  dis- 
pleasure shall  not  fall  on  any  who  have  (upon  the 
word  of  Moses)  betaken  themselves  to  yourself  as  a 
sanctuary.  And  now,  most  gracious  Sovereign,  what 
remains  for  us  to  do  ?  We  are  not  fit  to  advise  you, 
but  give  us  leave  to  be  your  remembrancers  before  the 
Lord."  They  conclude  with  devout  aspirations  for 
His  Majesty's  spiritual  welfare:  "  May  you  never  see 
the  handwriting  on  the  wall  that  your  kingdom  is 
divided,  but  let  this  be  your  motto — '  Not  by  power, 
not  by  might,  but  by  the  Spirit.'  May  you  rejoice  in 
this,  that  you  have  better  chariots  and  horsemen  (in 
the  many  of  your  subjects  who  are  faithful,  chosen, 
and  true)  than  other  princes  can  boast  of  And  still, 
may  your  tenderness  be  found,  that  of  a  nursing  father 
towards  the  young  and  weak  of  the  flock  that  cannot 
pace  it  with  their  elder  brethren,  and  yet  are  God's 
anointed,  nay,  God's  jewels,  the  apple  of  His  eye,  His 
children,  they  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  is  now  an 
Intercessor."  * 

There  was  also  an  address  from  the  Independent 
ministers  of  London  and  Westminster,  in  which  they 
referred  to  the  Breda  Declaration,  indicating  how 
greatly  it  sustained  their  hopes.  They  did  not,  they 
said,  wish  for  liberty  longer  than  they  deserved  it. 
^'And  it  is  our  desire,"  they  added,  "no  longer  to  sit 
under  the  shadow,  and  to  taste  the  fruit  of  this  your 
Majesty's  royal  favour,  than  we  approve  ourselves 
followers  of  peace  with  all  men,  seeking  the  peace  of 
these  kingdoms  united  under  your  Majesty's  Govern- 

*  From  Godly  Ministers  in  Exeter  and  Devonshire.  ("  State 
Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1660,  Vol.  I.  28.) 


8o  RELIGIOX  IX  EXGLAXD.  [Chap.  III. 

ment,  and  abiding  in  our  loyalty  to  your  royal  person 
and  submission  to  your  laws." 

An  address,  sent  by  the  ministers  of  Lancashire  at  a 
later  period,  shows  their  desire  to  wipe  out  the  stigma 
of  disloyalty :  "  Whereas,"  they  say,  "  we,  or  some 
of  us,  have  been  injuriously  misrepresented  to  your 
Majesty,  or  some  eminent  persons  about  you,  and 
have  also  been  prejudiced  and  molested,  as  if  we  denied 
your  Supremacy,  or  were  disaffected  to  your  Govern- 
ment (which  hindered  this  our  application  to  your 
Majesty,  although  prepared,  and  which  otherwise  had 
been  much  earlier,  even  with  the  first),  we  do,  in  all 
humility,  and  with  great  earnestness,  profess  before 
God  and  man,  that  we  detest  and  abhor  the  very 
thoughts  of  such  unworthy  principles,  behaviour,  and 
expression,  having  always,  according  to  occasion,  ex- 
pressed and  declared  the  contrary." 

In  this  address  we  notice  a  recognition  of  the  Royal 
Supremacy.  Not  only  the  civil,  but,  in  some  sense, 
the  ecclesiastical  Supremacy  of  the  Crown  must,  under 
the  circumstances,  have  been  meant.  Ecclesiastical 
Supremacy  would  be  claimed  and  exercised  by  the 
restored  sovereign  as  a  matter  of  course.  No  new  Act 
of  Parliament  was  passed  reconferring  it  on  the  Crown, 
and  defining  the  limits.  Henry  VIII.  had  been  de- 
clared "  Ecclesiae  Anglicanae  et  Hibernicae  Supremum 
Caput."  That  title  had  been  continued  during  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.,  but  was  repealed  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Mary.  In  the  first  year  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
Supremacy  was  restored  to  the  Crown,  the  Queen 
being  styled,  not  "  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church,"  but 
"  Supreme  Governor,  as  well  in  all  spiritual  and  eccle- 
siastical causes  as  in  others."  Henry's  and  Edward's 
title  had  never  been  resumed,  but  that  of  Elizabeth, 


1G60.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  Si 

having  belonged  to  the  first  two  monarchs  of  the 
Stuart  line,  descended  to  Charles  II.*  Charles  II.,  then, 
could  not,  in  legal  phrase,  be  "  Head  of  the  Church  ; " 
if  he  happened  to  be  so  designated,  it  would  be  in 
adulation  or  in  ignorance.  But  he  inherited  the  eccle- 
siastical powers  possessed  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  except 
in  relation  to  the  High  Commission  Court,  which  had 
been  abolished  by  Act  of  Parliament  in  the  reign  of 
his  father.  The  canons,  as  well  as  Acts  of  Parliament 
unrepealed  before  the  Civil  Wars,  were  regarded  by 
Churchmen  as  remaining  in  force,  and  the  second 
canon  required  an  oath  to  the  effect  that  "the  King's 
Majesty  hath  the  same  authority  in  causes  ecclesiastical 
that  the  Godly  kings  had  amongst  the  Jews,  and 
Christian  emperors  of  the  primitive  Church  " — whatever 
might  be  meant  by  that  vague  appeal  to  ancient  and 
obscure  precedents.  The  Supremacy  of  the  Crown, 
however,  as  asserted  by  Anglican  lawyers,  would  be 
one  thing  ;  the  Supremacy,  as  acknowledged  by 
Puritans,  especially  any  Nonconformist  portion  of 
them,  would  be  another.  The  authority  of  the  temporal 
ruler  over  the  temporalities  of  the  Church,  all  parties 
probably  would  be  prepared  to  allow  ;  those  of  them 
who  approved  of  a  State  Church  would  not  object  to 
his  being  invested  with  ecclesiastical  patronage  ;  Presby- 
terians, who  wished   for  the  establishment  of  perfect 

*  Stat.  26  Henry  VIII.  c.  i,  repealed  i  and  2  Philip  and  Mary, 
c.  8,  ss.  12-20.  That  Act  was  repealed  by  i  Elizabeth  c.  i, 
ss.  I,  2.  Except  in  certain  particulars,  provision  is  made  for  the 
ecolesiastical  Supremacy  of  the  Crown  by  i  Elizabeth  c.  i,  ss. 
16-23.  ("  Digest  of  Statutes,"  II.,  1387.)  The  doctrine  of  the 
Royal  Supremacy  arose  as  a  counteraction  of  the  doctrine  of 
Papal  Supremacy  ;  and  nothing  in  its  way  can  be  more  dignified 
and  noble  than  the  preface  to  the  Statute  24  Henry  VIII.,  c.  12. 
The  conflict  between  Papal  Supremacy  and  national  Enghsh 
Independence  began  long  before  the  Reformation. 

VOL.  III.  G 


82  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

parochial  discipline  by  the  magistrate's  aid,  could  not 
consistently  object  to  some  kind  of  Royal  Supremacy 
in  reference  to  that  matter ;  but  High  Church  Puritans, 
if  I  may  so  term  persons  holding  exalted  ideas  of  the 
spiritual,  as  distinguished  from  the  temporal  powers, 
like  High  Church  Anglicans,  would  entertain  a  reduced 
and  modified  conception  of  the  legitimate  interference 
of  the  Crown  with  Christ's  Church  ;  whilst  Noncon- 
formists, who  embraced  the  voluntary  principle,  would 
(even  if  from  loyal  courtesy  they  conceded  the  title  of 
Supreme  Governor  in  causes  ecclesiastical)  extract  from 
it  almost  all  which  constituted  its  signification  in  the 
eyes  of  others. 

It  should  further  be  borne  in  mind,  not  only  here, 
but  throughout  this  division  of  my  narrative,  indeed 
onward  to  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  that 
ecclesiastical  affairs  were  in  a  transition  state,  that 
scarcely  anything  could  be  regarded  as  perfectly  settled. 
The  High  Church  party  took  it  for  granted,  that  with 
the  return  of  the  King  came  the  return  of  the  episcopal 
constitution,  with  its  laws,  ceremonies,  and  usages. 
They  assumed  that  at  once,  without  any  new  Parlia- 
mentary statute,  the  stream  of  affairs  would  flow  back 
into  the  old  channel,  that  all  which  had  been  done 
by  the  Long  Parliament,  without  the  sanction  of  the 
Crown,  ought  to  be  treated  as  if  it  had  never  been 
done  at  all.  The  opposite  party  also  had  law  on  their 
side  ;  for  some  valid  Acts,  afi"ecting  the  Establishment, 
remained  unrepealed,  for  example,  the  Act  for  divesting 
Bishops  of  their  temporal  powers.  Under  existing 
circumstances,  much  might  be  said  on  behalf  of  other 
portions  of  recent  legislation,  even  where  the  Royal 
assent  had  not  been  obtained.  And  very  few  people 
now   will   deny   that   the   clergy   holding    preferment 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  S3 

during  the  Commonwealth  had  reason  and  common 
sense  in  their  favour  when  they  maintained  that,  after 
nearly  twenty  years  of  change,  after  a  revolution  carried 
on  by  a  de  facto  Government  which  had  destroyed  old 
vested  rights,  and  created  new  ones,  things  could  not 
be  expected  to  resume  their  former  position  as  a  matter 
of  course ;  that  those  in  possession  by  sanction  of 
Government  had  something  to  say  for  themselves,  and 
that  the  conclusion  as  to  the  Church  of  the  future  was 
not  foreclosed.  Whatever  might  be  said  to  the  con- 
trary, this  aspect  of  the  question  had  been,  and  still 
was,  tacitly  accepted  as  the  true  one  by  Charles  and 
by  Clarendon,  in  their  negotiations  with  the  Presby- 
terians, for  the  former  kept  the  latter  in  suspense 
for  more  than  a  year,  holding  out  the  idea  of  a  com- 
promise, and  did  not  attempt  to  carry  matters  with  a 
high  hand  until  the  Presbyterians  had  been  reduced  to 
a  condition  in  which  they  could  be  easily  crushed. 

The  counsellors  by  whom  Charles  was  surrounded 
on  his  return  were  men  of  different  characters,  and  they 
ought  at  once  to  be  noticed,  since  they  had  more  or 
less  to  do  with  the  ecclesiastical  affairs,  which  it  is  our 
business  to  study.  Hyde  immediately  became  Chief 
Minister.  His  round  face  and  double  chin,  as  we  see 
them  in  his  portrait,  appear  signs  of  good  nature  ; 
but,  perhaps,  a  skilful  physiognomist  would  discover  in 
his  eyes  and  lips  indications  of  qualities  less  pleasant. 
He  was  a  different  man  from  his  master.  Like  Charles 
I.,  he  was  sincerely  attached  to  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  England.  That  unhappy  Monarch,  in  one  of  his 
published  letters,  dated  Oxford,  March  30,  1646,  assures 
Queen  Henrietta  that  "Ned  Hide"  was  fully  of  his 
mind  on  the  subject  of  Episcopacy  ;  he  was  almost,  if 
not  altogether  (at  that  time),  the  only  person  in  the 


84  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

confidence  of  the  King  who  concurred  with  him  on  the 
point  of  reHgion.*  The  same  year,  when  matters  were 
even  worse,  Hyde  expressed  himself  against  "  buying 
a  peace  at  a  dearer  price  than  was  offered  at  Uxbridge,'' 
and  encouraged  the  notion  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Royahsts  to  submit  to  a  kind  of  martyrdom.  "  It  may 
be,"  he  remarked,  "  God  hath  resolved  we  shall  perish, 
and  then  it  becomes  us  to  perish  with  those  decent  and 
honest  circumstances  that  our  good  fame  may  procure 
a  better  peace  to  those  who  succeed  us,  than  we  were 
able  to  procure  for  them,  and  ourselves  shall  be  happier 
than  any  other  condition  could  render  us."  f  Looking  at 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  letter  was  written, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  sincerity  of  this  confes- 
sion, a  sincerity  confirmed  in  all  the  years  of  his  exile 
under  the  Commonwealth,  and  in  his  active  solicitude 
for  the  interests  of  the  Church  in  the  prospect  of  the 
Restoration.  His  subsequent  conduct  in  reference  to 
ecclesiastical  affairs  will  appear  as  we  proceed. 

The  Duke  of  Ormond,  who  had  done  and  suffered 
much  for  the  Stuarts,  was,  according  to  Burnet,  a 
courtier  of  graceful  manners,  of  lively  wit,  and  of  cheer- 
ful temper,  extravagant  in  his  expenditure,  but  decent 
in  his  vices  ;  he  was  a  firm  Protestant,  and  always  kept 
up  the  forms  of  religion,  even  amidst  the  indulgence 
of  his  passions.l  The  Earl  of  Southampton,  who  had 
faithfully  adhered  to  Charles  I.  and  his  son  through- 
out their  troubles,  enjoyed  a  merited  reputation  for 
virtue,  and  for  attachment  to  liberal  principles  ;  he 
leaned  towards  a  favourable  treatment  of  the  Presby- 
terians ;  but,  after  holding  the  Treasurer's  staff  he  grew 

*  "  Charles  I.  in  1646,"  30. 

t  Clarendon's  "State  Papers,"  II.  237. 

\  "  Hist,  of  his  own  Time,"  I,  95. 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  85 

weary  of  business,  perhaps  from  disapprobation  of  the 
Court  policy,  no  less  than  from  disease.*  Sir  Edward 
Nicholas  appears  to  have  been  a  mere  official,  perfunc- 
torily discharging  the  office  of  Secretary  ;  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  Sir  William  Morrice.  Nicholas  Cul- 
pepper, who  had  served  as  Master  of  the  Rolls  to 
Charles  I.,  and  who  showed  himself  to  be  a  politician 
favourable  to  the  constitutional  privileges  of  the  Crown, 
and  no  more,  took  little  interest  in  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
To  these  Ministers  is  to  be  added  the  Earl  of  Man- 
chester, a  man  virtuous  and  beloved,  gentle  and 
obliging,  but  not  marked  by  any  strong  individuality 
of  character.  On  the  side  of  Parliament  in  the  Civil 
Wars  he  had  been  a  main  pillar  of  Presbyterianism 
under  the  Protectorate ;  yet  though  nominated  by 
Oliver,  one  of  his  Lords,  he  had  been  opposed  to  Oliver's 
government.  As  a  Presbyterian  leader  he  had  taken 
a  prominent  part  in  a  meeting  held  at  Northumberland 
House,  with  a  view  to  the  Restoration,  after  which 
event,  upon  becoming  Lord  Chamberlain,  he  "never 
failed  being  at  chapel,  and  at  all  the  King's  devotions 
with  all  imaginable  decency."  f  He  did  not,  however, 
abandon  his  old  associates.  Next  to  Manchester  may 
be  mentioned  the  Presbyterian  Lord  Holies,  a  man  of 
sincere  religion,  who  had  opposed  the  Independents  in 
the  Long  Parliament,  and  had  resisted  Cromwell  ;  he 
bore  the  character  of  a  friend,  rough  but  faithful,  and 
of  an  enemy  violent  but  just ;  and  he  now  espoused 
with  fervour  the  cause  of  Charles.|  Sir  Anthony  Ashley 
Cooper  was  a  different  kind  of  person.  He  had  been 
a  Royalist,  and  also  a  member  of  the  Little  Parliament ; 

*  "  Hist,  of  his  own  Time  ;"  compared  with  Clarendon  (1220), 
who  gives  a  long  character  of  Southampton. 

t  Clarendon,  1005.  %  Burnet,  I.  97. 


86  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

and  if  he  could  be  said  to  be  anything  in  reference  to 
religion,  he  might  be  pronounced  a  Deist  ;  yet  he 
mingled  with  his  scepticism  the  superstition  of  astro- 
logy.* For  his  position  near  the  King,  this  versatile, 
inconstant,  unprincipled,  yet  clever  man,  was  indebted 
to  his  friend  Monk,  now  created  Duke  of  Albemarle, 
whose  character  has  been  already  indicated  in  these 
pages. 

Clarendon,  Albemarle,  Southampton,  and  Ormond 
were  the  ruling  spirits  immediately  after  the'  Restora- 
tion ;  and  together  with  them  ought  to  be  mentioned 
the  Earl  of  Bristol,  who,  though  by  having  recently 
declared  himself  a  Roman  Catholic,  had  been  excluded 
from  the  Privy  Council,  yet  retained  a  place  at 
Court ;  and  whilst  his  religious  policy  and  general 
character  made  him  obnoxious  to  Clarendon,  the  very 
same  things  made  him  agreeable  to  Charles.  Bucking- 
ham and  Bennet  will  come  upon  the  stage  at  a  future 
period. 

Soon  after  the  Restoration,  which  placed  these  men 
in  power,  there  occurred  the  disbanding  of  the  old 
Revolutionary  Army,  which  had  throughout  the  Com- 
monwealth been  the  main  guardian  of  the  Church  as 
well  as  of  the  State.  That  Army  had  apparently 
brought  back  the  exiled  Monarch,  or  rather  it  had 
strengthened  the  hands  of  those  who  performed  the 
deed  ;  but  in  consequence  of  its  past  history,  and  the 
character  of  many  numbered  amongst  the  troops,  it  was 
not  a  prop  upon  which  sagacious  and  far-sighted 
Royalists  could  place  much  reliance.  Indeed,  signs  of 
disaffection  were  already  visible.     There  were  veterans 

*  Burnet,  I.  96.  Burnet,  who  knew  Ashley,  afterwards  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  states  the  last  particular  upon  the  authority  of  con- 
versations with  him. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  87 

who,  whilst  formally  obeying  the  command  of  Royalist 
officers,  in  their  hearts  retained  allegiance  to  Lambert, 
and  other  Republicans.  Whispers  about  the  "  good 
old  cause "  might  be  heard  in  garrisons,  and  other 
military  quarters  ;  and,  it  is  said,  that  even  a  revolt 
against  Monk  had  begun  to  be  planned.  Charles  sought 
to  win  by  flattery  such  of  the  soldiers  as  were  of 
unsettled  mind,  and  his  Ministers,  at  the  same  time, 
employed  spies  to  find  out  and  secure  the  sowers  of 
sedition,  and  so  to  pluck  the  tares  from  amidst  the 
wheat ;  but  the  most  effectual  method  of  preventing 
the  apprehended  mischief  was  to  dissolve  the  Army 
altogether.  That  difficult  and  delicate  business  received 
prompt  and  careful  attention.  The  Government  em- 
ployed members  to  represent  to  Parliament,  first,  the 
uselessness  of  a  military  force  60,000  strong  in  time  of 
peace ;  and  next,  the  pecuniary  burden  which  it  im- 
posed upon  the  State,  then  encumbered  in  other  ways 
with  pecuniary  difficulties.  Consequently  motions  for 
a  gradual  reduction  and  payment  of  the  Army  were 
carried  ;  and,  gradually,  the  regiments  which  had  seen 
so  much  service,  and  had  passed  through  such  a  memor- 
able history,  melted  away.  They  took  home  recollec- 
tions of  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby,  of  the  Dunbar 
fight,  and  of  Worcester  field  ;  and  to  old  age  men  told 
their  children,  and  their  children's  children,  of  their 
marchings  and  their  defences,  especially  of  the  officers 
under  whom  they  had  fought,  and  of  Old  Noll,  the 
greatest  of  them  all.  Dispersed  over  the  country, 
settled  in  their  former  homes,  or  choosing  new  localities, 
they  spread  afar  the  sentiments  and  traditions  of  past 
days ;  and  the  religious  amongst  them,  still  very 
numerous,  the  Puritan,  the  Presbyterian,  the  Inde- 
pendent, the  Baptist,  the  Fifth  Monarchy  Millenarian, 


88   ■  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

and  the  Spiritual  Fanatic  of  some  inexpressible  shade, 
would  be  each  a  centre  of  influence  in  his  circle,  stimu- 
lating and  promoting  the  spirit  of  Nonconformity. 
Perhaps  the  Commonwealth  soldiers,  whilst  prevented 
by  their  being  disbanded  from  shaking  the  pillars  of 
the  State,  were  by  that  very  measure  placed  in  circum- 
stances which  enabled  them  quietly  to  exert  an  in- 
fluence tending  to  undermine  the  foundations  of  the 
Church.  Officers  and  soldiers  of  Cromwell's  are  often 
noticed  in  the  informations  laid  against  Dissenters 
during  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years  ;  and  it  is  because 
of  the  religious  character  of  that  Army,  and  because  of 
the  numbers  belonging  to  it,  who  afterwards  appeared 
in  the  ranks  of  Dissent,  that  I  have  stepped  aside  for 
a  moment  to  allude  to  an  event  of  a  military  character. 

Returning  to  our  proper  line  of  histoiy  we  meet  with 
certain  ecclesiastical  results  in  the  proceedings  of  Par- 
liament. For  a  time  the  Presbyterian  element  mani- 
fested itself  in  opposing  Popery,  and  in  supporting  the 
existing  Church  establishment ;  but  signs  of  change 
became  apparent  in  the  summer  months,  and  Episco- 
palians began  to  recover  their  long-lost  sway  over  the 
councils  of  the  nation.  The  following  consequences 
ensued  : — 

I.  The  Commons  debated  the  question  of  the  Church's 
settlement,  expressing  opinions  and  using  arguments 
similar  to  those  which  had  been  heard  at  the  opening 
of  the  Long  Parliament.  Some  members  extolled  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  dwelt  upon  the  merits  of  Epis- 
copalian Government ;  some  were  opposed  to  Deans 
and  Chapters,  yet  dealt  tenderly  with  Bishops ;  some 
were  for  Prelacy  as  of  old  ;  some  advocated  moderate 
Episcopacy  ;  and  some  indicated  a  lingering  love  for 
the    Solemn    League   and    Covenant;   others   thought 


1660.]         THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  89 

mere  politicians  were  unfitted  to  handle  theological 
topics,  that  judges  had  sent  for  a  falconer  to  give 
opinion  in  a  case  touching  a  hawk,  and  so  a  synod  of 
the  Clergy  ought  to  be  called,  lest  honourable  members 
"  should  be  like  little  boys,  who,  learning  to  swim,  go 
out  of  their  reach,  and  are  drowned."  Twice  it  was 
decided  that  the  King  should  "  convene  a  select  number 
of  Divines  to  treat  concerning  that  affair."*  Much 
was  thus  deferred  for  the  present ;  nevertheless,  an 
Act  speedily  passed,  allowing  present  incumbents  with 
undisputed  titles  to  retain  their  livings,  yet  restoring  to 
his  preferment  every  clergyman  who  had  been  ejected 
under  the  Commonwealth,  if  he  claimed  re-induction, 
provided  he  had  not  been  implicated  in  the  death  of 
Charles  I.,  and  had  not  discountenanced  infant  baptism. 
Upon  the  26th  of  May,  Prynne  made  a  report  touching 
the  quiet  possession  of  ministers,  schoolmasters,  and 
other  ecclesiastical  persons,  in  sequestered  livings,  until 
they  should  be  legally  convicted  ;  and  two  days  after- 
wards allusion  is  made  in  a  further  report  from  the 
same  member  to  several  riots  which  had  "  been  com- 
mitted, and  forcible  entries  made  upon  the  possessions 
of  divers  persons,  ecclesiastical  and  temporal ; "  when 
an  order  to  prevent  such  disturbances  in  future  was 
recommitted,  to  be  put  into  the  form  of  a  proclamation 
"  to  be  offered  to  the  King's  Majesty."  This  was  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Presbyterians,  but  the  current  of 
feeling  in  the  House  was  setting  in  the  other  direction.! 
In  consequence  of  this,  many  clergymen,  including 
Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  were  immediately 
displaced,  and  dispersed  Episcopalians  came  back  to 
their  former  abodes.     It  is  easier  to  imagine  than  to 

*  July  9th,  1 6th.     "  Pari.  Hist."  IV.  79,  84. 
t  "  Commons'  Journals." 


90  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

describe  the  excitement  attending  this  change.  Not 
only  did  sorrow  fill  the  dismissed  and  joy  inspire  the 
reinstated,  but  congregations,  in  many  cases,  deplored 
the  contrast  between  the  former  and  the  present 
occupant  of  the  pulpit ;  whilst,  also,  many  a  squire  and 
yeoman  hailed  the  reappearance  of  the  Prayer  Book, 
and  welcomed  home  some  genial  incumbent  after  his 
long  and  weary  exile.  Unseemly  contests  were  renewed 
in  the  House  of  God,  such  as  had  been  witnessed  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  Wars.  As  a  Presbyterian  at 
Halifax  began  worship  in  his  usual  manner,  the  Episco- 
palian Vicar  made  his  appearance  at  the  Church  door, 
with  the  Prayer  Book  under  his  arm,  and  marching  up 
the  aisle,  clothed  in  his  surplice,  insisted  upon  entering 
the  desk,  after  which  he  read  the  Litany  and  sung  the 
Te  Deum.  Joyous  peals  of  bells  accompanied  the 
return  of  the  old  clergy,  and  texts  were  selected  ex- 
pressive of  natural  feelings  on  the  occasion.  One 
discoursed  upon  the  sufferings  of  himself  and  his 
brethren  from  the  words,  "The  ploughers  ploughed 
upon  my  back  ;  they  made  long  their  furrows.  The 
Lord  is  righteous  ;  He  hath  cut  asunder  the  cords  of 
the  wicked."  Another,  in  a  milder  spirit,  selected  this 
verse,  "  He  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth  bearing 
precious  seed  shall  doubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing, 
bringing  his  sheaves  with  him."  An  itinerating  lecturer, 
with  an  income  of  £^,0  a  year,  chose  as  a  Restoration 
motto,  "  Let  him  take  all ; "  which,  upon  his  losing  his 
appointment,  gave  "  occasion  for  a  shrewd  taunt  of  the 
adversary."*  Parish  registers  contain  curious  memorials 
of  the  period.  Thus  one  clergyman  records  his  own 
story  :  "John  Whitford,  Rector  of  Ashen,  alias  Ashton, 
in  the  County  of  Northampton,  was   plundered    and 

*  Hunter's  "  Life  of  Heywood,"  125. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  91 

sequestered  by  a  Committee  of  rebels,  sitting  at 
Northampton,  for  his  loyalty  to  his  gracious  sovereign, 
of  blessed  memory,  Charles  I.,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1645,  and  was  restored  to  his  said  Rectory  in  the 
twelfth  year  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  in  the  year 
1660."* 

The  Liturgy  was  reintroduced.  It  had  been  used  in 
the  service  at  Canterbury  Cathedral  upon  the  occasion 
of  the  King's  visit  to  that  city,  on  his  way  to  London  ; 
and  earlier  still  in  the  House  of  Lords,  two  days  after 
he  had  been  proclaimed.  It  appeared  in  the  Royal 
Chapel  immediately  after  his  taking  possession  of 
Whitehall  ;  and  Evelyn,  on  the  8th  of  July,  records, 
that  the  Prayer  Book  was  publicly  read  in  "  churches, 
whence  it  had  been  for  so  many  years  banished."  In  a 
number  of  parishes,  however,  between  the  Restoration 
and  Bartholomew's-day,  1662,  ministers  continued  to 
carry  on  worship  as  they  had  done  before ;  either 
following  the  Directory  or  engaging  in  prayer  as  they 
pleased. 

II.  Parliament  took  up  in  detail  a  variety  of  business 
connected  with  the  restoration  of  Cathedral  and  parochial 
edifices,  the  recovering  of  what  had  been  taken  away, 
the  reinstating  of  things  in  their  former  condition,  and 
the  removing  of  alterations  made  by  Nonconformists. 
For  example  :  upon  a  report  from  the  Lords,  appointed 
to  compose  differences  in  the  City  of  Exeter,  it  was 
ordered  that  certain  churches,  of  which  a  list  is  given, 
should  be  repaired  at  the  charge  of  the  respective 
parishioners,  and  that  all  the  bells,  plate,  utensils,  and 
materials,  formerly  belonging  to  those  buildings,  should 
be  delivered  to  the  Churchwardens  :  that  money  still 
unpaid  for  their  purchase  should  not  be  paid  ;  that 
*  Kennet,  204. 


92  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

bonds  for  payment  should  be  given  up  ;  and  that  the 
Chamber  of  Exeter  should  forthwith,  at  their  own 
charge,  take  away  the  partition  wall  built  in  the 
Cathedral,  and  the  new-built  seats  in  the  Choir ;  all 
the  materials  whereof  were  to  be  employed  towards 
"making  up  again  the  churches  which  were  de- 
faced." * 

III.  Petitions  came  from  the  Universities,  and  the 
Upper  House  ordered  the  Chancellors  to  take  care 
that  the  Colleges  should  be  governed  according  to 
their  statutes,  and  that  persons  unjustly  ejected  should 
be  restored  to  office.f  Commissioners  also  were  ap- 
pointed to  hear  and  determine  questions  of  claim,  and 
they  were  engaged  through  the  months  of  August  and 
September  in  restoring  such  as  were  eligible  to  their 
former  position  as  Fellows  and  Heads  of  Houses. 
University  honours  were  offered  largely  to  such  as  pro- 
fessed attachment  to  Episcopacy,  and  a  numerous  cre- 
ation in  all  faculties  ensued.}  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
immediately  witnessed  great  changes.  Restored  Epis- 
copalians occupied  the  places  of  the  ejected,  and  the 
ancient  forms  of  worship  were  at  once  resumed.  The 
use  of  the  surplice  in  Parish  Churches,  by  the  Royal 
Declaration  of  the  25th  of  October,  fully  noticed  here- 
after, was  left  at  the  option  of  incumbents  ;  but  it  was 
enjoined  upon  those  who  officiated  in  the  Royal  Chapel, 
in  Cathedrals,  in  Collegiate  Churches,  or  in  Colleges  of 

*  "Journals  of  the  Lords,"  Sept.  ist. 

t  Ibid.,  June  4th.  The  Earl  of  Manchester  was  restored  to  the 
Chancellorship,  and  he  immediately  issued  warrants  for  the 
restoration  of  ejected  Heads  and  Fellows. 

X  Between  the  25th  of  June,  1660,  and  the  2nd  of  March,  1661, 
no  less  than  121  Doctors  of  Divinity  were  created  by  the  King's 
mandate,  and  39  degrees  were  conferred  on  other  faculties. 
(Kennet's  "  Reg."     Cooper's  "  Cambridge,"  III.  481.) 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  93 

the  Universities.*  Yet,  we  learn  from  a  letter  written 
by  Thomas  Smith,  at  Christ's  College,  Cambridge, 
November  2nd,  1660,  that  the  Puritanical  party  were 
still  powerful  there.  "  In  your  College,"  says  the 
writer,  addressing  Sancroft,  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  "  half  the  Society  are  for  the  Liturgy  and 
half  against  it ;  so  it  is  read  one  week  and  the  Directory 
used  another ;  but  till  the  Directory  be  laid  aside,  I 
believe  no  surplices  will  be  worn."  t 

During  the  progress  of  these  measures,  signs  ap- 
peared in  the  House  of  Commons  of  changes  in  the 
relative  position  of  parties  which  could  not  but  entail 
important  consequences.  Upon  the  30th  of  June  a 
complaint  reached  Parliament  that  a  paper  had  been 
printed,  in  His  Majesty's  name,  authorizing  the  uniform 
use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  throughout  the 
Realm  :  that  a  new  form  for  a  particular  Service 
had  been  published  as  by  Royal  authority :  and  that 
there  had  also  appeared  in  print  "  a  protestation  of  the 
Bishops  against  proceedings  of  Parliament  in  their 
absence."!  This  subject  the  Commons  referred  to  a 
Committee,  to  ascertain  how  such  papers  came  to  be 
printed,  and  by  what  authority.  In  this  proceeding 
may  be  traced  the  impress  of  Presbyterian  influence, 
attempting  to  preserve  Presbyterian  rights,  and  to  resist 
the  return  of  Episcopal  authority.  Presently,  a  Bill 
was  produced  "  for  the  maintenance  of  the  true  Re- 
formed Protestant  religion,  and  for  the  suppression  of 
Popery,  superstition,  profaneness,  and  other  disorders 
and  innovations  in  worship  and  ceremonies."  §     But  it 

*  Rennet's  "  Register,"  293. 
t  D'Oyley's  "  Life  of  Sancroft,"  I.  123. 
t  "Journals,"  under  date. 

§  Read  a  second  time  6th  July.  ("Journals.")  It  came  to 
nothing. 


94  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

soon  appeared  that  the  Episcopahan  party  had  gained 
ground  on  the  Presbyterians. 

Sharp,  the  Scotch  agent,  in  a  letter  dated  July  the 
7th,  remarked  :  "  Some  yesterday  spoke  in  the  House 
for  Episcopacy,  and  Mr.  Bampfield,  speaking  against 
it,  was  hissed  down.  The  English  lawyers  have  given 
in  papers  to  show  that  the  Bishops  have  not  been 
outed  by  law.  The  cloud  is  more  dark  than  was 
apprehended.  The  Presbyterians  are  like  to  be  ground 
betwixt  two  millstones.  The  Papists  and  fanatics 
are  busy."  *  The  fact  is,  that  in  the  first  instance, 
many  Episcopalians  had  been  elected  members  of  the 
Convention,  and  their  numbers  increased  after  the 
King's  return  as  fresh  elections  occurred.  They  formed 
a  compact  body,  and  made  a  vigorous  opposition  to 
the  Puritans  ;  an  opposition  which,  gradually  increasing 
both  in  power  and  boldness,  was  found  by  the  latter 
too  formidable  to  be  overcome.  Consequently,  the 
irresolute  and  the  selfish  amongst  them,  feeling  alarmed, 
and  seeing  which  way  the  wind  blew,  began  to  sail  on 
a  new  tack,  and  to  follow  those  who  were  making 
towards  a  safe  harbour.  Many  members  became,  in  a 
few  months,  as  staunch  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  as  they  had  ever  been  in  the  cause 
of  the  Presbyterian  Covenant. 

When  the  ecclesiastical  business  of  the  Session  had 
been  transacted,  the  King,  in  the  month  of  September, 
after  giving  his  assent  to  various  Bills,  made  a  speech 
to  the  two  Houses,  followed  by  another  of  great  length 
from  the  lips  of  Clarendon,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  who 
on  that,  as  well  as  on  other  occasions,  showed  a  talent 
for  sermonizing  not  disgraceful  in  a  Bishop. 

A  large  proportion  of  what  had  been  Church 
*  Kennet's  "  Register,"  200. 


1660.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  95 

property  existed  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  state.  It 
had  been  disposed  of  by  the  Long  Parliament  or  the 
Commonwealth  Government  in  the  form  of  rewards  for 
service  and  of  sales  for  money.  Was  it  now  to  revert 
at  once  to  its  previous  uses  }  If  so,  should  not  some 
compensation  be  made  to  the  present  possessors  or 
occupiers  }  Ecclesiastical  claimants  argued,  that  such 
property  had  been  illegally  secularized,  and  that  those 
who  had  received  it  had  taken  it  with  all  the  risks  of  a 
bad  title.  In  justice  to  the  Convention  it  should  be 
remarked,  that  it  passed  a  resolution  favourable  to  the 
rights  of  those  who  had  purchased  Church  lands  on  the 
faith  of  the  Parliament  ;  *  and,  in  justice  to  Charles  II., 
that  he  issued  a  Commission  in  November,  1660,  to 
inquire  into  the  history  of  such  transactions.  This 
Commission  was  authorized  to  compose  differences 
between  the  Bishops  and  the  purchasers  of  estates,  the 
direction  being,  that  Archbishops,  Bishops,  and  other 
ecclesiastical  persons  were  to  accept  such  reasonable 
conditions  as  should  be  tendered  to  them  by  the  Com- 
missioners on  behalf  of  such  purchasers  ;  and  that  they 
would  do  no  act  to  the  prejudice  of  any  purchasers,  by 
granting  new  or  concurrent  leases  whereby  their  exist- 
ing interest  or  position  might  be  injured,  while  the 
same  was  under  deliberation,  and  until  His  Majesty's 
pleasure  should  be  further  known.!  In  accordance 
with   the   spirit   of  this   Commission,  the  King  dealt 

*  "  Resolved,  That  it  be  referred  to  the  Grand  Committee,  to 
whom  the  Bill  for  Sales  is  committed,  to  receive  proposals  from 
any  of  the  purchasers  of  the  estates  of  Bishops,  and  other 
ecclesiastical  persons,  and  from  any  the  ecclesiastical  persons 
themselves,  or  from  any  others  ;  touching  satisfaction  to  be  given 
to  the  purchasers  of  any  public  lands  ;  and,  on  consideration 
thereof,  to  report  their  opinion  to  the  House."  ("  Commons' 
Journals,"  August  6,  1660.) 

t  Kennet,  312. 


96  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

leniently  with  those  who  had  become  possessed  of  Crown 
property  ;  and  this  circumstance,  which  was  creditable 
to  him,  caused  the  course  adopted  by  the  authorities  of 
the  Church  to  appear  the  more  reprehensible.  The 
Resolution  passed  by  the  Convention  came  to  nothing, 
upon  the  dissolution  of  that  Assembly  ;  and  the  holders 
of  Church  lands,  unprotected  by  Parliament,  and  left 
to  the  mercy  of  clerical  claimants,  experienced  severe 
treatment.*  Old  incumbents,  writhing  under  the  re- 
membrance of  wrong,  and  seeking  compensation  for 
their  losses,  refused  compensation  to  their  enemies,  and 
made  the  best  bargain  they  could  for  themselves. 

It  is  convenient  in  this  connection  to  allude  to  a 
change  in  certain  privileges  which  indirectly  affected, 
to  some  extent,  the  revenues  of  the  Church.  Amongst 
feudal  rights  were  those  of  tenures  by  Knight's-service, 
including  the  benefits  of  marriages,  reliefs,  and  ward- 
ships. Though  the  profits  derived  from  the  Court  of 
Wards  were  casual,  they  amounted  sometimes  to  a 
considerable  sum,  but  these  and  other  contingent 
revenues  were,  by  a  Parliamentary  arrangement,  with- 
drawn from  the  Sovereign,  and  in  lieu  of  the  income 
thus  forfeited,  one  moiety  of  the  excise  became  settled 
on  the  Crown.  The  Act  affected  the  revenues  of  the 
Church,  and  of  this  circumstance  a  remarkable  illustra- 
tion is  afforded  by  a  paper  in  the  Record  Office,  in 
which  the  Bishop  of  Durham  complains  of  a  loss  of 
;^2,ooo  through  the  abolition  of  these  courts.f 

*  Harris,  IV.  345.  In  the  Library  of  Canterbury  Cathedral  is 
a  curious  collection  of  letters  respecting  leases,  which  throw  light 
on  this  point.  Persons  plead  their  sufferings  under  the  Common- 
wealth, and  pray  for  the  renewal  of  their  leases  on  the  most 
favourable  terms. 

t  Amongst  the  "  State  Papers,  Dom.  Charles  II.,"  Vol.  LXXV. 
69,  there  is  an  account  by  John  Cosin,  Bishop  of  Durham,  of  the 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  97 

In  connection  with  this  reference  to  Episcopal 
revenues,  it  may  be  stated  that  at  the  Restoration  nine 
Bishops  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  regime  were  still  alive. 
These  were  Juxon,  Bishop  of  London  ;  Wren,  of  Ely  ; 
Piers,  of  Bath  and  Wells  ;  Skinner,  of  Oxford  ;  Roberts, 
of  Bangor  ;  Warner,  of  Rochester  ;  King,  of  Chichester  ; 
Duppa,  of  Salisbury ;  and  Frewen,  of  Lichfield  and 
Coventry.  They  considered  themselves,  and  by  their 
own  Church  they  were  regarded,  as  having  a  title  to 
resume  the  episcopates  from  which  they  had  been 
ejected.  But  whilst  things  remained  in  a  transition 
state  they  seem  to  have  acted  with  caution.  Without 
a  repeal  of  the  Act  of  Charles  L,  which  disqualified 
them  for  sitting  in  the  House  of  Lords,  they  could  not 
resume  their  seats.  Nor  until  the  purchasers  of  their 
episcopal  estates  were  dispossessed,  could  they  recover 
their  property  ;  nor,  for  a  while,  could  they  obtain 
possession  of  their  palaces,  or  enter  upon  the  possession 
of  their  sees.  Those  who  were  boldest  in  maintaining 
the  theory,  that  the  Episcopal  Church  at  the  Restora- 
tion resumed  its  rights  and  prerogatives,  could  not  at 
once  reduce  that  theory  to  practice. 

Throughout  the  latter  half  of  the  year  1660  and 
onwards,  applications  by  Episcopalian  clergymen  to  be 
restored  to  their  benefices,  or  to  be  favoured  with 
higher  preferment,  were  as  numerous  as  they  were 
urgent.  They  occur  amongst  the  "State  Papers"  of 
that  period,  in  all  sorts  of  connections  ;  and  one  volume 

true  state  of  the  present  revenues  of  his  see.  They  diminished 
;^i,ooo  a  year,  through  resumption  of  lands  by  Queen  Elizabeth, 
who  afterwards  regranted  them  on  a  rental  of  ;^88o  ;  he  lost 
£,if>oo  by  taking  away  the  Court  of  Ward  and  Liveries,  the 
revenues  of  which  in  the  County  Palatine  belonged  to  the 
Bishops  ;  he  prays  that  as  the  King  receives  / 1,500  a  year  excise 
money,  as  given  in  lieu  of  the  Court  of  Wards  in  Durham,  the 
rental  of /880,  paid  by  the  Bishops,  should  be  remitted. 
VOL.   III.  H 


98  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

of  them  alone,  assigned  in  the  Calendar  to  the  month 
of  August,  1660,  contains  no  less  than  143  documents 
of  this  description.  One  clergyman  beseeches  the  King 
to  recommend  him  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  York, 
as  Vicar-General  of  the  diocese  during  a  vacancy,  the 
petitioner  having  suffered  by  resisting  both  the  Cove- 
nant and  the  Engagement.  A  second  begs  the  Deanery 
of  Lichfield,  he  having  lost  a  valuable  living  given  him 
at  Oxford  by  the  late  King  as  a  reward  for  his  loyalty. 
A  third  applies  for  the  Archdeaconry  of  Hereford.  A 
fourth  prefers  his  claim  to  the  Archdeaconry  of  Chester, 
on  the  ground  of  having  been  deprived  and  plundered 
for  constancy  in  maintaining  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  the  Church.  There  are  many  petitions  for  prebends, 
one  from  a  clergyman  who  appears  to  have  been  a  wit, 
for  he  begs  the  reversion  of  the  next  stall  in  Worcester 
Cathedral ;  only  excepting  that  connected  with  the 
Margaret  Professorship  of  Divinity,  saying,  that  "though 
not  likely  to  receive  benefit  thereby  on  account  of  his 
age,  yet  having  long  waited,  as  the  cripple  at  the  pool 
of  Bethesda,  it  will  comfort  him  to  think  that  he  dies 
cousin-german  to  some  preferment."  Another  pleads, 
with  some  humour,  that  having  sacrificed  liberty  to 
duty,  he  must  now  forfeit  it  in  another  way,  even  for 
debt,  unless  aided  by  His  Majesty's  generosity.*  To 
most  of  these  forms  of  application  there  are  annexed 
certificates  from  various  persons,  particularly  Dr. 
Sheldon,  who  seems  to  have  taken  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  to  promote  the  interests  of  his  clerical  brethren. 
The  hopes  and  fears  which  at  other  times  agitate  two 
or  three  candidates  are,  at  a  general  election,  multiplied 
by  hundreds  all  over  the  kingdom  ;  so  at  the  Restora- 
tion, what  commonly  is  a  flutter  amongst  a  few  aspirants 
*  "Calendar  Dom.,"  1 660-1 661,  218-236. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  99 

after  ecclesiastical  promotion,  was  then  the  experience 
of  multitudes  at  the  same  moment ;  and  perhaps  there 
never  were  before  or  since,  within  the  same  compass  of 
time,  so  many  clergymen  on  the  tip-toe  of  expectation, 
doomed  of  course,  in  many  cases,  to  utter  disappoint- 
ment. 

Soon  after  the  King's  return  the  Earl  of  Manchester 
employed  his  influence,  as  Lord  Chamberlain,  in  the 
appointment  of  ten  or  twelve  Presbyterian  chaplains  at 
Court ;  of  these  only  four,  Reynolds,  Calamy,  Spurstow, 
and  Baxter,  ever  had  the  honour  of  ministering  before 
His  Majesty.*  Baxter  states  that  there  was  no  profit 
connected  with  the  distinction  ;  and  that  not  "  a  man 
of  them  all  ever  received,  or  expected  a  penny  for  the 
salary  of  their  places."  But  if  the  office  brought  no 
pay  to  himself,  he  was  anxious  it  should  bring  profit  to 
the  Church  ;  and,  therefore,  he  employed  the  influence 
which  his  chaplaincy  gave  him,  to  promote  such  mea- 
sures as  he  thought  conducive  to  the  advancement  of 
religion.  He  suggested  to  the  Earl,  and  to  Lord 
Broghill,  a  conference,  for  what  he  called  "  agreement," 
or  "coalition  ;"t  and  as  Calamy,  Reynolds,  and  Ash 

*  Kennet,  162.  The  other  names  given  by  Baxter  ("  Life  and 
Times,"  II.  229)  are  Wallis,  Bates,  Manton,  Case,  Ash,  all  of 
whom  accepted  ;  and  Newcomen,  who  decHned  the  office.  Neal 
(IV.  263)  gives  the  name  of  Woodbridge. 

t  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  229.  Amongst  the  Baxter  MSS.  in 
Dr.  Williams'  library,  I  have  seen  a  note,  apparently  relating  to 
the  period  now  before  us.  Baxter  said  : — The  late  Archbishop 
Ussher  and  he  had  in  an  hour's  time  agreed  on  the  most  easy 
terms.  Episcopal  Divines  called  on  him  to  know  what  the  terms 
were,  i.e..,  Dr.  Gauden,  Dr.  Gouldson,  Dr.  Helen,  Dr.  Bernard,  etc., 
and  they  expressed  great  delight,  and  were  willing  to  make  abate- 
ments necessary  thereto.  Some  men  of  greater  power  stept  in 
and  frustrated  all.  Mr.  Calamy  thought  the  best  way  was  to 
interest  and  engage  the  King  on  the  matter.  It  was  mentioned 
to  him  accordingly.  Calamy  consulted  the  London  ministers, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  Ussher's  reduction  should  be  offered  as  a 


100  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

concurred  in  his  views,  he  procured  an  arrangement 
in  the  month  of  June  for  himself,  and  his  brethren  in 
office,  to  meet  their  Royal  master,  with  Clarendon,  the 
Earl  of  St.  Albans,  and  other  noble  persons,  at  the 
house  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain. 

When  they  met,  Baxter,  with  characteristic  ardour 
and  pathos,  delivered  a  long  address,  probably  such  as 
Charles  had  never  listened  to  before,  although  he  had 
heard  much  plain  speaking  on  the  other  side  the 
Tweed.  The  Puritan  Divine  besought  His  Majesty's 
aid  in  favour  of  union,  urging,  that  it  would  be  a 
blessed  work,  to  promote  holiness  and  concord  ;  and, 
"  whereas  there  were  differences  between  them  and 
their  brethren  about  some  ceremonies  or  discipline  of 
the  Church,"  he  "craved  His  Majesty's  favour  for  the 
ending  of  those  differences,  it  being  easy  for  him  to 
interpose,  that  so  the  people  might  not  be  deprived 
of  their  faithful  pastors,  nor  [have]  ignorant,  scandalous, 
unworthy  ones  obtruded  on  them."  Baxter  also  ex- 
pressed a  hope  that  the  King  would  never  suffer 
himself  to  undo  the  good  which  Cromwell,  or  any 
other,  had  done,  because  they  were  usurpers  that  did 
it,  "but  that  he  would  rather  outgo  them  in  doing 
good."  Then,  with  exquisite  simplicity,  the  speaker 
went  on  to  say  that  common  people  judged  of  governors 
by  their  conduct  ;  and  took  him  to  be  the  best  who 
did  the  most  good,  and  him  to  be  the  worst  who  did 
the  most  harm.  He  hoped  that  the  freedom  of  his 
expressions  might  be  pardoned,  as  they  were  "  extracted 
by  the  present  necessity  ; "  and  he  further  declared  that 
he  was  pleading  for  no  one  party  in  particular,  but  for 

ground  of  union.  This  was  laid  before  the  King  with  other 
proposals,  but  the  Lord  Chancellor  would  not  allow  the  matter  to 
be  taken  into  consideration. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  loi 

the  interests  of  religion  at  large.  In  concluding  his 
address  he  urged  the  great  advantage  which  union 
would  prove  to  His  Majesty,  to  the  people,  and  to  the 
Bishops  ;  and  showed  how  easily  that  blessing  might 
be  secured,  by  insisting  only  upon  necessary  things,  by 
providing  for  the  exercise  of  Church  discipline,  and  by 
not  casting  out  faithful  ministers,  "  nor  obtruding  un- 
worthy men  on  the  people."  *  The  whole  speech  was 
pitched  in  a  key  of  earnestness  beyond  the  sympathy 
of  him  to  whom  it  was  addressed  ;  there  was  in  it, 
nevertheless,  a  charm  to  which  the  easy-tempered 
Charles  might  not  be  insensible,  and  with  his  usual 
politeness,  he  professed  himself  gratified  by  any  ap- 
proach being  made  towards  agreement.  He,  at  the 
same  time,  remarked  that  there  ought  to  be  abatements 
on  both  sides,  and  a  meeting  midway  ;  adding,  that  he 
had  resolved  to  see  the  thing  brought  to  pass,  indeed, 
that  he  would  himself  draw  the  parties  together.  Upon 
listening  to  this  Royal  pledge,  Mr.  Ash,  one  of  the 
chaplains,  was  so  affected  that  he  burst  into  tears. 
Baxter  and  his  associates  were  requested  to  draw  up 
proposals  for  consideration  at  a  future  conference,  to 
which  they  consented,  with  the  understanding,  that  for 
the  present  they  could  only  speak  for  themselves,  and 
not  as  representatives  of  others.  They  also  craved, 
that  if  concessions  were  granted  on  one  side,  conces- 
sions should  be  granted  on  the  other.  To  this  Charles 
agreed. 

Meetings  were  accordingly  held  immediately  after- 
wards at  Sion  College,  meetings  prolonged  from  day 
to  day.  By  general  invitation  both  city  and  country 
ministers  attended,  including  Dr.  Worth,  afterwards 
made  an  Irish  Bishop,  and  Mr.  Fulwood,  subsequently 
*  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  230. 


102  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

appointed  Archdeacon  of  Totness.*  Difficulties  arose 
of  a  nature  necessarily  accompanying  all  debates  ;  for, 
as  Baxter  says,  that  which  seemed  the  most  convenient 
expression  to  one,  seemed  inconvenient  to  another,  and 
those  who  agreed  as  to  matter  had  much  ado  in  agree- 
ing as  to  words.  The  latter  might  be  true  to  some 
extent,  but  in  all  probability  the  discussions  at  Siori 
College  resembled  others  elsewhere,  in  which  men  have 
agreed  as  to  words,  in  order  to  cover  some  very  im- 
portant difference  as  to  things.  At  last  the  brethren 
resolved  to  make  the  following  proposals  : — That  their 
flocks  should  have  liberty  of  worship  ;  that  they  should 
have  godly  pastors  ;  that  no  persons  should  be  admitted 
to  the  Lord's  table  except  upon  a  credible  profession 
of  faith  ;  and  that  care  should  be  taken  to  secure  the 
sanctification  of  the  Lord's  Day.  For  "  matters  in 
difference,  viz..  Church  government,  Liturgy,  and  cere- 
monies," they  professed  not  to  dislike  Episcopacy, 
or  the  true  ancient  presidency,  as  it  was  balanced  and 
managed,  with  a  due  commixture  of  Presbyters ;  yet 
they  omitted  not  to  state  what  they  conceived  to  be 
amiss  in  the  Episcopal  government,  as  practised  before 
the  year  1640,  specifying  the  too  great  extent  of  dio- 
ceses, the  employment  by  Bishops  of  officials  instead 
of  personal  oversight,  their  absorption  of  the  functions 
of  ordination  and  government,  and  the  exercise  of  arbi- 
trary power  in  their  spiritual  rule.  They  proposed, 
as  a  remedy,  Ussher's  scheme  of  suffragan  Bishops 
and  diocesan  synods,  the  associations  not  to  "be  so 
large  as  to  make  the  discipline  impossible  ;  "  and  they 
requested  that  no  oaths  of  obedience  to  Bishops  should 
be  necessary  for  ordination  ;  and  that  Bishops  should 
not  exercise  authority  at  their  pleasure,  but  only 
*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  232. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  103 

according  to  such  rules  and  canons  as  should  be  estab- 
lished by  Act  of  Parliament.  They  were  satisfied  con- 
cerning the  lawfulness  of  a  Liturgy,  but  they  objected 
to  the  Prayer  Book,  as  having  in  it  many  things  justly 
offensive  and  needing  amendment. 

It  may  be  stated  here,  that  all  these  proposals  took 
the  form  of  a  direct  address  to  His  Majesty  ;  and  in 
reference  to  ceremonies,  the  memorialists  heartily  ac- 
knowledged His  Majesty  "to  be  Custos  utrmsqiie  tahitl(Z, 
and  to  be  supreme  governor  over  all  persons,  and  in  all 
things  and  causes  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil."  After 
this  they  besought  him  to  consider,  as  a  Christian 
magistrate,  whether  he  felt  not  obliged,  by  the  apostle's 
rule,  touching  things  indifferent,  to  act  so  as  not  to 
occasion  an  offence  to  weak  brethren.  They  therefore 
prayed  that  kneeling  at  the  sacrament,  and  such  holy- 
days  as  are  of  human  institution,  might  not  be  imposed  ; 
and  that  the  use  of  the  surplice,  the  cross  in  baptism, 
and  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  might  be  abolished.* 
Objections  to  these  practices  had  become  traditional. 
They  had  been  urged  throughout  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  they  had  been  specified  in  the  Millenary 
Petition  presented  to  King  James.  It  should  be  added, 
that  neither  in  this  paper,  nor  in  any  of  the  conferences 
which  followed,  did  the  ministers  plead  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  Presbyterianism.  "  I  leave  it  here  on 
record,"  says  Baxter,"  to  the  notice  of  posterity,  that  to 
the  best  of  my  knowledge,  the  Presbyterian  cause  was 
never  spoken  for,  nor  were  they  ever  heard  to  petition 
for  it  at  all."  All  they  sought  was  a  reduced  Epis- 
copacy.f 

*  Baxter's  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  232,  et  seq.  Also  in  Card- 
weirs  "  Conferences,"  277,  corrected  from  MS.  copy  amongst  the 
"Tanner  MSS.,"  Bodleian. 

t  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  278. 


104  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

When  Baxter  with  his  friends  attended  the  next 
meeting  with  the  King,  expecting  to  find  the  Episco- 
pahans  prepared  with  some  concessions,  he  "  saw  not 
a  man  of  them,  nor  any  papers  from  them  of  that 
nature,"  Still  Charles  showed  himself  gracious,  pro- 
mising, after  all,  to  bring  the  Bishops  together,  and  get 
them  to  yield  something  ;  at  the  same  time  expressing 
gratification  with  the  Presbyterians'  address,  especially 
with  their  expressed  willingness  to  adopt  a  Liturgy.* 
Instead  of  the  desired  conference  being  granted,  a 
written  answer  came  from  the  prelates,  to  the  chap- 
lains.f  In  this  answer  we  find  that  the  prelates  begin 
by  turning  to  their  own  advantage  the  concessions  of 
the  Presbyterians.  The  Presbyterians  agreed  with  the 
Episcopalians  in  doctrine.  Why  should  they  be  so 
scrupulous  about  minor  matters  ?  Such  is  the  tone  of 
the  paper,  and  it  is  the  habitual  Episcopalian  temper 
throughout,  even  in  its  least  unfriendly  moods.  Pro- 
fessing a  willingness  to  reform  what  had  been  objec- 
tionable in  time  past,  or  what  might  be  inconvenient 
for  the  future,  the  Bishops  defended  the  constitution 
and  usages  of  their  own  Church  before  the  Wars,  and 
treated  "  Ussher's  Reduction,"  so  called,  as  inconsistent 
with  other  discourses  of  the  learned  prelate.  After 
extolling  the  Liturgy,  they  remarked,  "  nor  are  ministers 
denied  the  use  and  exercise  of  their  gifts  in  praying 
before  and  after  sermon,  although  such  praying  be  but 
the  continuance  of  a  custom  of  no  great  antiquity.' 
Had  this  sentence  meant,  that  scope  should  be  given 

*  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  241.  The  date  of  this  interview  is  not 
given  by  Baxter. 

t  This  paper  is  printed  in  Baxter's  "Life  and  Times,"  II. 
242-247,  and  in  "  Documents  relating  to  the  Settlement  of  the 
Church  of  England  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  of  1662,"  p.  27,  but 
not  in  Cardwell's  "  Conferences." 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  105 

for  free,  as  well  as  for  liturgical,  worship,  that  clergy- 
men should  be  allowed  to  pray  at  Church  extempore,  as 
well  as  read  prayers,  the  concession  would  have  been 
most  important ;  subsequent  events,  however,  show 
that  such  was  not  the  meaning,  and  also  that  the  fol- 
lowing passage,  which  might  be  construed  as  granting 
much,  signified  little  or  nothing  :  "  If  anything  in  the 
established  Liturgy  shall  be  made  appear  to  be  justly 
offensive  to  sober  persons,  we  are  not  at  all  unwil- 
ling that  the  same  should  be  changed."  With  regard 
to  ceremonies,  they  now  seemed  to  concede  what  they 
afterwards  refused  to  allow.  "  How  far  forth,  in  regard 
of  tender  consciences,  a  liberty  may  be  thought  fit  to 
be  indulged  to  any.  His  Majesty,  according  to  his  great 
wisdom  and  goodness,  is  best  able  to  judge." 

The  Presbyterians  were  not  slow  in  offering  a  defence 
of  their  own  proposals,  and  a  remonstrance  against  the 
replies.  Some  of  Baxter's  companions  were  for  giving 
up  further  attempts  in  despair ;  but  he,  although  not 
sanguine,  determined  to  persevere,  for  reasons  which 
deserve  to  be  remembered.  After  calling  to  mind  that 
Christians  were  commanded,  if  possible,  to  live  peace- 
ably with  all  men  ;  that  failure  in  the  negotiations  going 
on  was  not  inevitable  ;  and  that  no  political  apprehen- 
sions need  be  entertained  respecting  Nonconformists, 
because  even  if  they  were  far  more  numerous  than  they 
really  were,  yet  they  abhorred  "  all  thoughts  of  sedition 
and  rebellion,"  he  ended  the  vindication  of  his  policy 
in  the  following  noble  words  :  "  I  looked  to  the  end  of 
all  these  actions,  and  the  chief  thing  that  moved  me, 
next  the  pleasing  of  God  and  conscience  is,  that  when 
we  are  all  silenced  and  persecuted,  and  the  history  of 
these  things  shall  be  delivered  to  posterity,  it  will  be  a 
just  blot  upon  us  if  we  suffer  as  refusing  to  sue  for 


I06  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  IChap.  III. 

peace  ;  and  it  will  be  our  just  vindication,  when  it  shall 
appear  that  we  humbly  petitioned  for  and  earnestly 
pursued  after  peace,  and  came  as  near  them  for  the 
obtaining  it  as  Scripture  and  reason  will  allow  us  to 
do,  and  were  ready  to  do  anything  for  peace  except  to 
sin  and  damn  our  souls."  *  "  Let  God  be  judge  between 
you  and  me,"  had  been  Oliver's  words  when  he  dis- 
missed his  last  intractable  Parliament,  thus  appealing 
to  Heaven  and  posterity.  To  the  same  tribunal  Baxter 
was  prepared  to  remit  his  own  controversy  with  his 
Anglican  brethren. 

It  looked  at  first  as  if  the  Presbyterians  had  really 
made  some  impression  on  their  opponents  ;  at  least 
Clarendon  was  willing,  that  just  then,  they  should  think 
so.  On  the  4th  of  September  he  sent  them  the  draft  of 
a  Royal  Declaration  of  Indulgence.  It  did  not  satisfy 
Baxter  ;  and  he,  therefore,  wrote  an  elaborate  reply, 
which  was  altered  at  the  suggestion  of  some  of  his 
friends.f  The  reply  took  the  shape  of  a  petition  to  the 
King ;  yet  it  was  such  an  immoderately  long  disserta- 
tion that  the  idea  of  Charles  reading  it  through  is  per- 
fectly amusing.  No  man  except  a  guileless  one  could 
have  written  the  paper,  but  the  paper  betrayed  an  utter 
want  of  tact  and  judgment. 

An  opportunity  had  arisen  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  of  England  for  healing  a  wound  which  had 
been  bleeding  ever  since  the  Reformation.  A  moment 
had  arrived,  calling  upon  the  two  great  parties,  into 
which  that  Church  had  been  so  long  divided,  to  look  at 
their  differences  in  the  light  of  wisdom  and  charity. 
But  the  history  of  mankind  presents  so  many  misim- 
proved  conjunctions  of  circumstances,  that  students  of 
the  past  become  familiar  with  lost  opportunities,  and 

*  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  258,  259.         \  Ibid.,  265,  et  scq. 


1660.]         THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  107 

are  almost  hardened  against  the  sorrow  which  they 
inspire  in  the  bosoms  of  more  benevolent  but  less 
experienced  persons.  It  is  useless  to  speculate  upon 
the  probable  issue,  at  the  period  under  review,  if  the 
settlement  of  affairs  had  been  approached  in  another 
kind  of  spirit.  It  is  more  practical  to  endeavour  to 
understand  how  things  really  stood  ;  and  it  will  enable 
the  reader  to  follow  the  controvers}^  better,  if  we  here 
pause  for  a  moment  to  look  distinctly  at  deep  differ- 
ences which  lay  around  narrow  discussions,  and  to  show 
what  were  some  of  the  salient  points  which  presented 
themselves  in  relation  to  the  larger  question.  The 
Presbyterians,  with  great  confidence,  carried  their  cause 
before  the  tribunal  of  Scripture,  and  showed  from  their 
own  point  of  view,  that  for  their  fundamental  doctrine 
of  the  official  equality  of  all  Christian  ministers  they 
had  on  their  side  the  law  of  the  New  Testament ;  for 
they  maintained  that  on  its  pages  the  terms  Bishop 
and  Presbyter  are  interchangeably  used,  and  that  no 
traces  of  a  clerical  hierarchy  are  to  be  found  in  the 
inspired  records.  Turning  to  Church  history,  from  the 
third  century  to  the  seventeenth,  they  easily  gathered 
proofs  and  illustrations  of  the  growth  of  ecclesiastical 
usurpation  ;  of  the  change  of  primitive  Episcopacy  into 
an  elaborate  system  of  spiritual  despotism  ;  of  the  rise 
of  Archbishops  and  Patriarchs ;  of  the  pride,  the  power, 
the  ambition,  and  the  wealth  of  prelates  ;  of  the  tyranny 
they  exercised  over  civil  society  ;  of  the  corruptions  of 
all  kinds  which  gathered  round  the  perverted  institute  ; 
and  of  the  tendency  from  bad  to  worse,  which  exists  in 
all  cases  where  men  are  not  careful  to  preserve  the 
simplicity  of  Christ.  The  state  of  England  in  the  time 
of  Archbishop  Laud  was  a  subject  upon  which  they 
were  able  to  dwell  with  great  force.     They  showed  the 


io8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

cruel  oppression  endured  by  holy  men,  at  the  hands 
of  prelates,  who  sought  to  revive  in  this  country  the 
ceremonies  renounced,  and  the  doctrines  condemned  at 
the  Reformation  ;  and  they  insisted  upon  the  obvious 
fact  that  the  Church  was  in  danger  of  becoming 
thoroughly  Romanized,  under  the  pernicious  culture  of 
superstitious  teachers.  The  Revolution  accomplished 
by  the  Long  Parliament,  the  Presbyterians  were  pre- 
pared to  defend  as  a  political  and  ecclesiastical  neces- 
sity, arising  out  of  previous  corruptions  ;  whilst  they 
pointed,  with  satisfaction  and  thankfulness,  to  the 
progress  of  spiritual  religion  under  the  Commonwealth, 
in  spite  of  sectarianism,  and  the  other  evils  of  the  times, 
all  of  which  they  condemned,  and  deplored  quite  as 
much  as  any  of  the  Episcopalian  clergy  could  do. 
Ecclesiastical  discipline  in  the  parishes  of  England,  for 
attempting  which  they  had  been  so  much  blamed,  the 
Presbyterians  could  show,  rested  on  a  principle  con- 
ceded by  Prelates  ;  and  though  it  failed  to  produce  all 
the  fruits  which  its  administrators  could  wish,  yet  it 
had  turned  many  a  town  and  village  from  a  wilderness 
into  a  garden  of  the  Lord.  And  when  they  contended 
against  the  Prelacy  of  former  days,  and  protested 
against  its  restoration,  they  distinctly  stated,  as  we  have 
seen,  that  they  had  no  objection  to  a  modified  Epis- 
copacy, to  the  rule  of  a  Bishop,  with  his  co-Presbyters, 
over  dioceses  of  such  dimensions  as  would  admit  of 
careful  oversight  and  efficient  rule  ;  nor  did  they  con- 
demn all  liturgies,  not  even  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  if  certain  things  in  the  formularies  and  the 
rubric,  which  they  and  their  Puritan  fathers  had  com- 
plained of  as  superstitious,  were  now  altered.  The 
Presbyterian  party,  moreover,  professed  the  most  affec- 
tionate loyalty  to  the  Crown,  and  the  warmest  attach- 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  109 

ment  to  the  English  Constitution  ;  and  in  support  of 
that  profession  could  point  to  valuable  services  ren- 
dered by  them  at  the  Restoration.  Lastly,  they  were 
in  possession  of  incumbencies,  to  which  they  had  been 
introduced  according  to  the  law  of  the  land,  some  of 
them  before  the  late  troubles  began.  They  had  been 
educated  at  the  Universities,  had  been,  many  of  them, 
episcopally  ordained,  had  led  quiet  lives  in  their  re- 
spective parishes,  had  preached  the  Gospel  for  many 
long  years,  and  had  gathered  round  them  large  and 
affectionate  congregations.  Hence  they  urged,  that 
for  them  now  to  suffer  expulsion,  to  be  turned  adrift  on 
the  wide  world  without  subsistence,  to  be  silenced,  and 
to  have  an  end  put  to  their  spiritual  influence,  would 
be,  in  the  sight  of  the  world,  of  the  Church,  and  of  God, 
a  burning  shame. 

The  Episcopalians  also,  looking  at  the  matter  on 
the  other  side,  had  something  to  say.  They  prized  the 
past  History  of  the  Church,  and  esteemed  it  of  great 
importance  to  stand  in  the  relation  of  successors  to  the 
Christian  teachers  of  antiquity.  Their  theory  was  that 
the  Church  of  England  had  not  been  established  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  or  Henry,  but  had  then  been  only 
reformed ;  that  it  constituted  part  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  of  which  Rome  had  unjustly  usurped  the 
name,  without  possessing  the  attribute.  Their  formu- 
laries they  traced  back  through  mediaeval  times.  For 
their  doctrines  they  claimed  the  support  of  early 
Councils  and  Fathers.  They  pointed  to  the  great 
antiquity  of  their  orders,  to  the  diocesan  Bishops  of 
the  second  century,  and  of  every  century  since ;  and 
were  prepared  to  argue,  that  the  early  prevalence  of  the 
distinction  between  Bishops  and  Presbyters  is  a  pre- 
sumptive proof  of  its  having  been  sanctioned  by  apos- 


no  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

tolic  authority.  As  to  the  evils  flowing  from  Prelacy, 
the  advocates  of  it  would  maintain  that  the  abuse  of  a 
system  is  one  thing,  and  the  system  itself  another  ; 
that,  although  in  the  Middle  Ages,  in  the  Church  of 
Rome,  Prelacy  had  been  made  the  instrument  of 
immense  mischief,  this  fact  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
present  controversy,  the  subject  in  dispute  being  not 
Popish  Episcopalianism,  but  the  Episcopalianism  of  the 
Reformed  Church  of  England,  the  Episcopalianism  of 
Ridley  and  Parker.  Such  Prelacy,  the  Bishops  and 
their  friends  could  irresistibly  maintain  to  have  been 
part  and  parcel  of  the  law  of  England  since  the  Refor- 
mation down  to  the  Civil  Wars  ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  they  could  point  to  the  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  Spiritual  Peers  in  the  Constitution  of  this  country 
from  the  early  Saxon  period,  the  legal  or  constitutional 
argument  being  the  great  bulwark  of  the  Episcopalian 
cause,  when  treated  as  a  social  or  political  question. 
The  ecclesiastical  changes  accomplished  by  the  Long 
Parliament,  were,  in  the  eyes  of  Royalist  and  Anglican 
Churchmen,  perfectly  unconstitutional,  illegal,  and 
nugatory,  for,  in  the  accomplishment  of  them,  one 
House  had  virtually  done  everything,  the  remnant  of 
the  Lords  being  mere  ciphers  ;  and  the  King,  so  far 
from  having  sanctioned  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient 
Church,  had  protested  against  it,  even  unto  death. 
With  the  Restoration,  it  was  said  again  and  again, 
came  back  the  old  Constitution  of  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons  ;  and  with  that  Constitution  the  Reformed 
Episcopacy  and  Prayer  Book  of  England.  The  gravest 
and  most  forcible  of  all  the  allegations  which  the  men 
now  claiming  their  former  position  could  bring  against 
their  opponents  was,  that  they,  in  their  turn,  had  been 
as  exclusive  as  it  was  possible  for  any  class  to  be.     The 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  m 

Presbyterians,  in  the  day  of  their  power,  had  shown  no 
consideration  whatever  for  their  Episcopalian  neigh- 
bours. They  had  ruled  with  a  high  hand,  and  those 
who  differed  from  them  had  experienced  no  mercy. 
They  had  proscribed  the  Prayer  Book,  and  had  vihfied 
it  in  all  kinds  of  ways,  that  very  Prayer  Book  which 
now,  with  certain  alterations,  they  would  not  decline 
to  use.  They  had  persecuted  some  of  the  very  persons 
to  whose  candour  and  generosity  they  now  appealed  ; 
also,  they  had  been  Commissioners  for  casting  out 
scandalous  ministers,  and  had  assisted  to  expel  some, 
from  whom  now,  they  were  asking  the  privilege  of 
continued  ministration,  with  its  emoluments,  as  an  act 
of  strict  justice,  or,  at  least,  of  reasonable  favour. 
Besides,  the  Anglicans  charged  the  Puritans  with 
narrow-mindedness,  with  sticking  at  trifles,  with  making 
mountains  of  mole-hills,  with  cherishing  scruples  about 
points  which  involved  no  principle — in  short,  with  being 
under  the  influence  of  prejudice  and  obstinacy.  And 
then,  beyond  all  other  things  which  separated  Episco- 
palians from  their  brethren,  was  a  certain  element  of 
feeling  in  some,  not  in  Sheldon,  but  in  Cosin  and 
Thorndike,  and  Heylyn,  which  gave  a  mystical  tinge 
to  their  views  of  matter  in  relation  to  mind,  and  which 
was  the  soul  of  their  distinctive  sacramental  theology. 

Such  were  the  religious,  theological,  and  ecclesiastical 
differences  between  the  two  parties,  to  which  must  be 
added  strong  political  antagonism  for  the  last  twenty 
years.  That  antagonism  has  been  described  in  my 
former  volumes.  It  will  reappear  in  later  ones.  Thus 
the  two  parties  looked  upon  the  question  in  dispute  from 
their  own  point  of  view,  influenced  by  past  circum- 
stances and  by  personal  prejudices,  after  the  manner  of 
most  controversialists.    Both  are  chargeable  with  faults 


112  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

of  reasoning,  and  faults  of  temper.  Each  made  too 
much  of  Httle  things  :  one  in  enforcing  them  for  the 
sake  of  order,  the  other  in  objecting  to  them  as  sins 
against  God.  The  strong  despised  the  weak.  The 
weak  condemned  the  strong.  Neither  mastered  the 
lessons  of  St.  Paul*  Yet  the  two  were  by  no  means 
equally  blamable.  More  of  Christian  consideration 
and  charity  is  discernible  on  the  Puritan  than  on  the 
other  side,  although  even  the  Puritans  had  not  attained 
to  the  exercise  of  that  rare  sympathy  by  which  one 
man  penetrates  into  the  soul  of  another,  making  him  as 
it  were  a  second  self,  by  which  process  alone  can  a 
man  subdue  prejudice  and  win  his  brother  over  to  that 
which  he  believes  to  be  the  truth.  It  is  necessary  also 
to  bear  in  mind  this  circumstance,  that  both  parties 
were  advocates  for  a  national  establishment  of  religion. 
Each  party  fixed  its  thoughts  upon  one  society  in 
which  substantial  uniformity  of  government  and  worship 
should  be  maintained,  one  society  engrossing  patronage 
and  absorbing  emoluments.  It  requires  some  effort 
for  persons  familiar  only  with  modern  phases  of 
thought,  thoroughly  to  enter  into  the  ideas  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  accurately  to  apprehend  and 
estimate  the  views  which  were  then  current.  Eccle- 
siastical controversy  has  undergone  an  immense  change 
since  that  day ;  and  could  those  who  met  together,  as 
about  to  be  described,  now  rise  from  the  dead,  it  would 
be  difficult  for  them  to  comprehend  the  position  into 
which  the  Church  questions  of  our  age  seem  to  be 
drifting. 

Remembering  all  this   I   proceed  with   my  history. 
There  was  a  house  in  the  Strand  known  as  Worcester 
House.     It  had  belonged  to  the  Bishops  of  Carlisle  ;  it 
*  Romans  xiv. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  113 

had  been  bestowed  on  the  Bedford  family  ;  it  had  been 
transferred  to  the  author  of  the  "  Century  of  Inven- 
tions," whose  family  title  of  Marquis  of  Worcester, 
gave  it  its  name  ;  and  it  had  been  fitted  up  by  the 
Long  Parliament  for  the  reception  of  the  Scotch  Com- 
missioners. By  a  turn  in  the  wheel  of  fortune,  which, 
at  the  Restoration,  brought  about  so  many  changes, 
this  residence  had  come  once  more  into  the  possession 
of  the  Marquis,  and  he  had  lent  it  to  Lord  Chancellor 
Clarendon,  as  a  residence,  without  requiring  "  one 
penny  rent."  The  mansion,  over  which  had  fallen  such 
varying  shadows,  and  which  had  been  designed  to 
accommodate  the  deputation  in  1643  from  the  Presby- 
terians of  Scotland,  now  appeared  as  the  scene  of 
important  negotiations  between  the  Court  and  the 
Presbyterians  of  England. 

Clarendon  proposed  a  meeting  of  the  two  parties 
upon  the  22nd  of  October.  It  was  a  time  of  great 
excitement  in  London,  for  the  execution  of  the  regicides, 
which  will  be  noticed  hereafter,  had  only  just  taken 
place ;  and,  through  the  fortitude  with  which  some  of 
them  had  suffered,  a  reaction  of  feeling  had  arisen, 
and  people  had  become  disgusted  with  such  bloody 
spectacles.  His  Majesty  was  present  in  the  Chancellor's 
mansion,  with  the  Dukes  of  Albemarle  and  Ormond, 
the  Earls  of  Manchester  and  Anglesea,  Lord  Holies, 
and  the  Bishops  of  London,  Worcester,  Salisbury,  Dur- 
ham, Exeter,*  and  Lichfield  and  Coventry.  Presently 
were  ushered  into  the  apartment,  fitted  up  in  the  style 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  with  costly  furniture  and 
superb  decorations,  for  Clarendon  lived  like  a  prince, 
the  following  Presbyterian   Divines — Reynolds,   Spur- 

*  Durham  and  Exeter  were  vacant  sees  at  the  Restoration. 
Cosin  and  Gauden  had  been  nominated  to  them  respectively. 
VOL.  III.  I 


114  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

Stow,  Wallis,  Manton,  Ash,  and  Baxter.  Their  Puritan 
habits  contrasted  obviously  with  the  costume  of 
Courtiers  and  Bishops,  and  would  be  eyed,  no  doubt, 
rather  oddly  by  pages  as  they  announced  their 
entrance.  No  disputing  was  to  be  allowed  ;  the  Lord 
Chancellor  was  simply  to  read  over  his  revised 
Declaration,  and  as  he  advanced,  the  two  parties  were 
simply  to  declare  their  approbation  or  their  disapproval. 
The  particulars  of  the  interview  are  too  long  for 
insertion  ;  but  I  may  observe,  that  after  many  com- 
ments upon  Clarendon's  paper,  and  after  much  conver- 
sation respecting  the  subject  of  Episcopal  power,  and 
of  re-ordination,  the  Chancellor  drew  out  of  his  pocket 
another  paper,  observing,  that  the  King  had  been 
asked  by  Independents  and  Anabaptists  to  grant 
toleration.  He  therefore  proposed  to  insert  in  the 
document  which  had  been  read,  a  clause  to  the  effect, 
that  persons  not  members  of  the  endowed  Church 
should  be  permitted  to  meet  for  religious  worship, 
provided  they  did  not  disturb  the  public  peace.  A 
pause  followed.  "The  Presbyterians  all  perceived," 
says  Baxter,  "that  it  would  secure  the  liberty  of  the 
Papists."  Dr.  Wallis  whispered  to  him  to  be  silent, 
and  to  leave  the  Bishops  to  give  an  answer.  But  the 
eager  disputant  could  not  hold  his  tongue.  "  I  only 
said  this,"  he  reports,  "  that  this  reverend  brother,  Dr. 
Gunning,  even  now  speaking  against  sects,  had  named 
the  Papists  and  the  Socinians.  For  our  parts,  we 
desired  not  favour  to  ourselves  alone,  and  rigorous 
severity  we  desired  against  none !  As  we  humbly 
thanked  His  Majesty  for  his  indulgence  to  ourselves,  so 
we  distinguish  the  tolerable  parties  from  the  intolerable. 
For  the  former,  we  humbly  crave  just  lenity  and  favour  ; 
but,  for  the  latter,  such  as  the  two  sorts  named  before 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  115 

by  that  reverend  brother,  for  our  parts  we  cannot  make 
their  toleration  our  request.  To  which  His  Majesty 
said,  that  there  were  laws  enough  against  the  Papists  ; 
and  I  replied,  that  we  understood  the  question  to  be, 
whether  those  laws  should  be  executed  on  them,  or 
not.  And  so  His  Majesty  brake  up  the  meeting  of 
that  day."  * 

Clarendon  states  that  in  the  draft  of  the  Declaration 
a  passage  occurred  professing  the  King's  use  of  the 
Prayer  Book,  and  that  "he  would  take  it  well  from 
those  who  used  it  in  their  Churches  that  the  common 
people  might  be  again  acquainted  with  the  piety, 
gravity,  and  devotion  of  it,  and  which  he  thought 
would  facilitate  their  living  in  good  neighbourhood 
together."  This  clause  Clarendon  says  was  left  out  at 
the  ministers'  request,  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
resolved  to  do  what  the  King  wished,  and  to  reconcile 
the  people  to  the  use  of  that  form  by  degrees,  which 
would  have  a  better  effect  if  such  a  passage  were 
omitted.  Clarendon  charges  Calamy  with  writing  a 
letter  which  was  intercepted  and  found  to  contain  the 
expression  of  a  resolve  to  persist  in  the  use  of  the 
Directory,  and  not  to  admit  the  Common  Prayer  Book 
into  their  Churches.  Upon  turning  to  Baxter's  account 
and  reading  the  Declaration,  one  finds  that  all  which 
the  ministers  promised  to  do,  and  all  that  the  Declara- 
tion required  of  them,  was  not  totally  to  lay  aside  the 
book,  but  to  read  those  parts  against  zvhich  there  could 
be  no  exception.  It  is  incredible,  looking  at  the  ground 
taken  throughout  by  the  Puritan  ministers,  that  they 
ever  could  have  talked  in  the  way  Clarendon  represents. 
As  to  the  contents  of  an  intercepted  letter,  no  one  who 
knows  anything  of  the  tricks  then  played  will  attach 

*  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  277. 


Il6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

importance  to  what  is  said  by  the  same  historian  on 
that  subject.* 

No  doubt  Charles  looked  as  grave  and  as  gracious 
as  possible  whilst  he  talked  at  Worcester  House  with 
Baxter  and  his  brethren  ;  and,  although  His  Majesty- 
alarmed  his  auditors  by  a  reference  to  laws  against 
Papists,  he  took  care  not  to  betray  the  utter  hoUowness 
of  his  professed  zeal  for  Protestantism.  So  far  as  he 
had  any  sincere  desire  to  grant  an  indulgence,  it  was 
not  on  behalf  of  Protestants,  but  on  behalf  of  other 
persons  whom  Protestants  most  disliked.  Puritans 
were  to  him  troublesome  people,  whom  he  had  to  keep 
quiet  as  long  as  he  could ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  he 
seems  to  have  wished  to  use  them  as  tools  for  pro- 
ducing the  liberty  which  the  Papists  craved. 

Baxter  went  home  dejected ;  two  or  three  days 
afterwards,  however,  as  he  was  walking  in  the  City, 
amidst  the  din  of  carts  and  coaches,  and  the  confusion 
of  London  cries,  he  heard  a  boy  bawling  at  the  top  of 
his  voice,  that  he  had  on  sale  copies  of  the  King's  new 
Declaration.  He  bought  one  of  the  sheets,  and  stepped 
into  a  shop  to  peruse  the  contents.  The  King,  he 
found,  commended  in  the  highest  terms  the  Church  of 
England,  and  also  acknowledged  the  moderation  of  the 
Presbyterians  ;  he  then  proceeded  to  enumerate  a  series 
of  concessions,  which  he  had  not  the  least  doubt  that 
the  present  Bishops  would  think  "just  and  reasonable," 
and  "very  cheerfully  conform  themselves  thereunto:" 
That  none  should  be  presented  to  Bishoprics  but  men 
of  learning,  virtue,  and  piety  ;  that  suffragans  should 
be  appointed  in  the  larger  Dioceses  ;  that  the  censures 
of  the  Church  should  not  be  inflicted  without  the 
advice  and  assistance  of  Presbyters,  who  should  aid 
*  Compare  Baxter  II.  263,  275,  with  Clarendon,  p.  1034. 


1660.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  117 

Bishops,  Chancellors,  and  Archdeacons,  in  their  re- 
spective offices  ;  that  Confirmation  should  be  rightly 
and  solemnly  performed :  that  no  Bishop  should 
exercise  any  arbitrary  power ;  that  the  Liturgy 
should  be  revised,  but  that,  until  the  revision  was 
effected,  the  unexceptionable  portion  of  it  should  be 
used  ;  that  no  existing  ceremonies  in  the  Church  should 
be  at  once  formally  abolished,  but,  to  gratify  the 
private  consciences  of  those  who  were  grieved  with  the 
use  of  some  of  them,  they  should  be  dispensed  with  for 
the  present, — the  final  decision  being  left  to  a  national 
Synod,  to  be  duly  called  after  a  little  time,  when 
mutual  conversation  between  persons  of  different  per- 
suasion should  have  mollified  those  distempers,  abated 
those  sharpnesses,  and  extinguished  those  jealousies 
which  made  men  unfit  for  such  consultation.  The  sign 
of  the  cross  in  baptism,  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus, 
the  use  of  the  surplice,  and  the  oath  of  canonical 
obedience,  were  things  not  to  be  enforced,  but  to  be 
left  to  individual  opinion  and  choice.  The  King  con- 
cluded, by  renev/ing  his  Declaration  from  Breda,  for 
the  liberty  of  tender  consciences,  and  by  expressing 
hopes  for  the  unity  of  the  Church,  the  prosperity  of 
religion,  and  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  nation.* 
This  Declaration  went  a  long  way  towards  meeting  the 
views  of  moderate  Presbyterians,  and  seemed  at  first 
to  supply  a  basis  on  which  a  scheme  of  comprehension 
might  have  been  reared.  It  is  expressed  in  a  tone 
utterly  different  from  that  adopted  by  the  Bishops.  It 
might  well  lead  some  Presbyterians  to  believe  that  the 
hour  of  union  had  come.     Baxter  found  that  sugges- 

*  Baxter's  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  259-264;  also  printed  in 
Wilkins'  "  Concilia,"  Cardwell's  "  Conferences,"  and  "  Documents 
relating  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity." 


Ii8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

tions  made  by  himself  and  his  friends,  at  the  Worcester 
House  Conference,  had  been  adopted  in  the  Declara- 
tion, and,  on  the  whole,  he  felt  pleased  with  the 
document.  On  the  day  that  it  appeared,  he  received 
from  the  Lord  Chancellor  an  offer  of  a  Bishopric.  He 
replied,  that  if  this  offer  had  come  before  his  seeing  the 
Declaration,  he  should  have  declined  it  at  once  ;  now, 
however,  he  said,  "  I  take  myself,  for  the  Churches' 
sake,  exceedingly  beholden  to  his  Lordship  for  those 
moderations  ;  and  my  desire  to  promote  the  happiness 
of  the  Church,  which  that  moderation  tendeth  to,  doth 
make  me  resolve  to  take  that  course  which  tendeth 
most  thereto  ;  but  whether  to  take  a  Bishopric  be  the 
way  I  was  in  doubt,  and  desired  some  farther  time  of 
consideration  ;  but  if  His  Lordship  would  procure  us 
the  settlement  of  the  matter  of  that  Declaration,  by 
passing  it  into  a  law,  I  promised  him  to  take  that  way 
in  which  I  might  most  serve  the  public  peace."  Soon 
afterwards  Baxter  made  up  his  mind  to  decline  the 
proffered  honour,  partly  on  personal,  partly  on  eccle- 
siastical grounds.  He  tells  us,  indeed,  that  he  dis- 
approved of  the  "  Old  Diocesan  frame,"  and  feared 
that,  as  a  Bishop,  he  might  have  work  to  do  contrary 
to  his  conscience ;  but  he  also  particularly  expresses 
the  feeling  that  the  Episcopal  office  would  draw  him 
aside  from  those  works  of  theological  authorship,  for 
which  he  believed  he  had  a  special  fitness,  and  a  Divine 
mission.  It  is  curious  to  find  Baxter  when  he  refused 
a  Bishopric,  proposing  to  Clarendon  a  number  of  names 
from  which  to  choose  some  one,  instead  of  himself.  At 
this  time  he  had  the  reputation  of  being  "intimate 
with  the  Lord  Chancellor  Hyde,"  and  accordingly  his 
influence  was  solicited  on  behalf  of  ministers  in  trouble. 
Adam  Martindale  tells  us  that  when  his  own  name 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  119 

was  sent  up  on  suspicion  to  the  Privy  Council,  Baxter, 
at  the  solicitation  of  a  friend,  spoke  on  his  behalf  to 
Clarendon,  who  "  did  so  rattle  one  of  the  Deputy- 
Lieutenants  and  so  expostulate  with  the  Earl  of  Derby, 
that  Martindale  was  released."  The  account  is  very 
amusing,  and  shows  Martindale's  exultation  at  his 
enemies  being  outwitted  in  their  application  to  the 
Privy  Council.  The  story  indicates,  what  may  be 
gathered  from  several  circumstances,  that  Clarendon 
at  that  time  wished  to  show  favour  to  the  Presby- 
terians.* 

Reynolds,  at  the  same  time,  was  offered  the  Bishopric 
of  Norwich,  and  accepted  it.  For  this  he  was  then 
reproached,  and  has  often  since  been  severely  blamed. 
Yet  Baxter  persuaded  him  to  take  this  step,  advising 
him  to  declare,  that  he  did  so  upon  the  terms  of  the 
Royal  Declaration,  and  that  he  would  resign  if  these 
terms  were  withdrawn.  Reynolds  read  to  his  friend  a 
paper  which  he  had  prepared  for  His  Majesty's  hands, 
stating  that  he  believed  a  Bishop  was  only  a  chief 
Presbyter,  and  ought  not  to  ordain  or  govern  but  with 
the  assistance  of  his  co-Presbyters,  such  being  the 
doctrine  according  to  which  he  was  prepared  to  take 
his  seat  on  the  Bench.  Whether  he  actually  did 
present  such  a  paper,  Baxter  could  not  telLf 

The  ecclesiastical  weather  had  suddenly  changed. 
The  clouds  were  breaking.  The  sun  began  to  shine. 
Conciliation  had  become  the  order  of  the  day.  Calamy 
was  offered  the  Bishopric,  and  Bates  the  Deanery  of 
Lichfield ;  Manton  the  Deanery  of  Rochester,  and 
Bowles    that    of  York.      Other   preferments  were  left 

*  "  The  Life  of  Adam  Martindale,"  printed  for  the  Cheetham 
Society,  p.  153. 
t  "Life  and  Times/'  IL  281-283. 


I20  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

vacant  for  awhile,  professedly  with  the  hope  that  they 
might  be  accepted  by  Presbyterians.  The  see  of 
Carlisle  was  intended  for  Dr.  Gilpin ;  *  and  a  fortnight 
after  the  Declaration  had  been  issued,  Diplomas  were 
conferred  at  Cambridge,  by  Royal  mandate,  on  Bates, 
Jacomb,  and  Wilde.f 

To  reciprocate  these  friendly  approaches,  some  Pres- 
byterians, but  not  those  who  had  met  at  Worcester 
House,  prepared  an  address  to  His  Majesty.|  They 
craved  leave  to  profess,  that  though  all  things  in  the 
frame  of  government  were  not  exactly  to  their  minds, 
yet  His  Majesty's  moderation  had  so  great  an  influence 
upon  them,  that  they  had  determined  to  use  their 
utmost  endeavour  to  heal  the  breaches,  and  to  promote 
the  peace  and  union  of  the  Church.  They  begged  of 
His  Majesty,  that  re-ordination  and  the  surplice  in 
Colleges  might  not  be  imposed,  and  they  hoped  God 
would  incline  his  heart  to  gratify  their  desires.§  The 
Address  was  presented  on  the  i6th  of  November  by 
Samuel  Clark,  of  St.  Bennett  Fink.  This  fair  weather 
was  of  short  continuance.  The  sun  was  soon  concealed 
again.  The  clouds  returned  after  the  rain.  Suspicions 
respecting  the  sincerity  of  the  Declaration  increased  ; 
from  the  beginning,  some  had  been  dissatisfied  with  it. 
The  treatment  it  finally  received  from  the  Commons, 

*  Mr.  Grosart  has  shown  this  in  his  interesting  memoir  pre- 
fixed to  Gilpin's  "  Daemonologia  Sacra,"  p.  xxxii.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  same  Bishopric  should,  within  a  century  or  so,  have 
been  olTered  to  two  Gilpins,  and  refused  by  both. 

t  Kennet,  308.  As  stated  before,  there  were  no  less  than  121 
Doctors  of  Divinity  made  by  mandate  between  25th  of  June,  1660, 
and  2nd  of  March,  1661. 

X  Those  of  them,  with  whom  Baxter  acted,  were  not  sufficiently 
satisfied  with  the  Declaration  to  offer  formal  thanks  for  it. 
Clarendon  (1035)  brings  this  as  a  charge  against  them. 

§  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  284. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  121 

under  the  exercise  of  Court  influence,  shows  the  real 
character  of  the  whole  affair  ;  we  must  therefore  enter 
the  House,  and  watch  its  proceedings. 

Nothing-  could  exceed  the  gratitude  expressed  by  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  name  of  the 
members,  for  His  Majesty's  Declaration.*  Yet,  three 
days  before  he  did  so,  it  had  been  significantly  pro- 
posed that  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  should  be 
used  in  the  daily  worship  of  the  House,  little  objection 
being  made  to  this  proposal.  The  prevalent  opinion 
appeared  to  be  in  favour  of  a  form,  and  "  the  Speaker 
excused  the  minister  from  any  more  service,  till  the 
form  was  ordered."  t  A  Bill,  founded  upon  the  Decla- 
ration, followed  upon  the  28th  of  November.  The 
arguments  adduced  in  its  favour  were  to  this  effect, 
that  without  a  Bill  the  Declaration  would  be  ineffec- 
tive ;  that  it  was  fitting  to  alter  many  things  in  the 
Liturgy  ;  that  the  present  business  was  of  the  highest 
concernment  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  peace  of  the 
nation  ;  that  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  were  not  of 
such  importance  as  to  justify  another  war  ;  that  some 
indulgence  ought  to  be  granted  to  those  who  "ventured 
their  lives  for  the  good  of  all ; "  and  that  the  passing 
of  the  measure  would  not  vex  the  Bishops  at  all, 
because  they  were  with  the  King  at  the  framing  of  the 
Declaration.  Prynne  thought  that  it  would  be  as- 
tonishing if,  after  thanking  the  King  for  issuing  the 
document,  the  House  rejected  the  Bill,  which  had  been 
founded  upon  it.  But  many,  who  approved  of  the 
Declaration,  spoke  against  the  Bill.  They  said  it  was 
contrary  to  precedent  to  turn  a  Royal  Edict  into  an 
Act  of  Parliament  ;  that  it  was  not  the  King's  desire ; 
and  that    it    would    dissatisfy    the    Roman    Catholics. 

*  Nov.  9th.     (Kennet,  307.)  f  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  142. 


122  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

Secretary  Morrice  Is  reported  to  have  spoken  am- 
biguously, and  to  have  concluded  his  speech  by  advising 
that  the  Bill  should  be  laid  aside  :  183  voted  against  it, 
and  157  for  it.*  The  Declaration,  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged, was  so  obviously  a  temporary  expedient,  and 
of  so  provisional  a  nature,  that  there  seemed  room  to 
oppose  a  Bill  like  this,  framed  "  for  making  the  King's 
Majesty's  Declaration  touching  ecclesiastical  affairs 
effectual."  Preparatory  steps  needed  to  be  taken 
before  a  complete  Church  for  the  future  could  be 
established.  Yet,  if  the  leaders  of  the  House  had  been 
sincerely  bent  upon  a  conciliatory  policy,  they  might 
easily  have  contrived  some  measure  for  that  purpose. 

The  course  pursued  by  the  Commons  may  be  ex- 
plained. Out  of  doors  a  strong  feeling  was  making 
itself  heard  in  favour  of  such  Episcopalianism  as  existed 
in  the  days  of  Elizabeth.  At  the  moment  of  the 
King's  return  much  talk  of  moderation  had  been  heard 
from  politic  men  in  the  Church.  Even  Sheldon  spoke 
of  charity  when  preaching  before  the  King  in  the 
month  of  June  :  f  but  now  the  tone  of  the  principal 
clergy  altered,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  a  specimen 
of  the  change  occurs  in  a  consecration  sermon,  in  which 
it  is  declared  that  "  the  work  of  the  Bishops  was  not  so 
much  to  convert  infidels  as  to  confute  heretics  and 
schismatics."  %  In  addition  to  the  growing  strength 
and  boldness  of  the  Episcopalians,  there  was  another 

*  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  152-154,  and  "  Commons'  Journals,"  Wed- 
nesday, 28th  of  November. 

t  "That  is  the  best  and  most  Christian  memory,"  says  he, 
"that,  as  Cesar's,  forgets  nothing  but  injuries.  Let  us  all 
seriously  and  sadly  look  back,  consider  and  bemoan  one  another, 
for  what  we  have  mutually  done  and  suffered  from  each  other." 
(Harris's  "Lives,"  IV.  385.) 

:j;  Henchman's  Sermon,  entitled  "A  Peace-Offering  in  the 
Temple." 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  123 

cause  for  the  defeat  of  the  Bill.  Clarendon  states  that, 
in  the  summer,  when  the  Grand  Committee  entered 
upon  the  settlement  of  the  question  of  religion,  ''the 
King  desired  no  more  tJian  that  they  should  do  nothing, 
being  sure  that  in  a  little  time  he  should  himself  do  the 
work  best;"*  he  wished  to  have  the  matter  under  his 
own  control  ;  and  Secretary  Nicholas,  writing  to  Sir 
Henry  Bennet,  informed  him  that  Parliament  would 
meet  with  better  hope  of  success  because  the  King  had 
"  removed  the  main  bone  of  division,  by  taking  into  his 
oivn  hand  the  great  point  of  Church  Governmentr  \  It 
is  plain  that  Charles  felt  an  aversion  to  any  Act  of 
Parliament  whatever  upon  the  subject ;  it  is  also  plain 
that  the  Commons  were  in  some  way  induced  to  act 
accordingly.  "  When  the  Parliament,"  says  the  noble 
historian,  "came  together  again  after  their  adjournment 
they  gave  the  King  public  thanks  for  his  Declaration, 
and  never  proceeded  further  in  the  matter  of  religion,  of 
which  the  King  was  very  glad  ;  only  some  of  the  leaders 
brought  a  Bill  into  the  House  'for  the  making  that 
Declaration  a  law,'  which  was  suitable  to  their  other 
acts  of  ingenuity,  to  keep  the  Church  for  ever  under 
the  same  indulgence,  and  without  any  settlement ; 
which,  being  quickly  perceived,  there  was  no  further 
progress  in  it."|  Who  were  the  instruments  commonly 
employed  to  influence  the  House,  so  as  to  bring  it  into 
unison  with  Rojal  designs,  the  same  authority  explains, 
when  he  says,  that  from  the  Restoration,  he  and  Lord 
Southampton,  by  desire  of  the  King,  "  had  every  day 
conference  with  some  select  persons  of  the  House  of 

*  Clarendon,  1034. 

t  "Calendar  of  State  Papers,    Dom.,  Charles  II."     Nov.   i, 
1660. 
X  Clarendon,  1035. 


124  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

Commons,  and  with  these  they  consulted  in  what 
method  to  proceed  in  disposing  the  House,  sometimes 
to  propose,  sometimes  to  consent,  to  what  should  be 
most  necessary  for  the  public,  and  by  them  to  assign 
parts  to  other  men  whom  they  found  disposed  and 
willing  to  concur  in  what  was  to  be  desired."  *  There 
is  then  no  room  for  believing  otherwise  than  that  the 
Chancellor,  in  agreement  with  the  King,  did  what  he 
could  to  influence  members  to  vote  against  the  Bill  for 
turning  the  Royal  Declaration  into  law.  Consistently 
with  this  inference  we  find  Secretary  Morrice  speaking 
against  it ;  and  Secretary  Nicholas  informing  Sir  Henry 
de  Vic  that  the  Bill  for  passing  the  King's  late  Decla- 
ration had  "  happily  been  thrown  out."  f  The  circum- 
stance, at  that  juncture,  of  the  elevation  to  the  Bench 
of  Matthew  Hale,  who  had  acted  on  the  Committee 
for  framing  the  Bill,  and  who  by  his  elevation  was 
removed  from  the  House  of  Commons,  tallies  with 
other  proceedings  ;  the  whole  showing  that  the  policy 
of  the  Court  was  to  get  rid  of  the  Bill,  and  with  it  the 
obligations  incurred  by  the  Declaration.  For,  it  cannot 
be  said,  that  the  question  before  the  House  was  a  mere 
question  of  form,  and  that  opposing  the  Bill  did  not 
necessarily  imply  opposition  to  the  scheme  which  it 
embodied,  since  all  the  promises  held  out  in  the 
Declaration  were  set  at  nought  by  the  subsequent 
proceedings  of  the  King  and  his  Minister. 

Charles,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  simply  wished  to 
keep  the  Presbyterians  quiet  as  long  as  possible,  to  get 
a  few  of  their  leaders  into  the  Episcopal  Church,  and 

*  Lister's  "  Life  of  Clarendon,"  IL  218. 

t  "State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  IL,"  December  7,  1660.  In 
a  letter  on  the  previous  day  he  alludes  to  the  Bill  as  "  quashed  by 
the  violence  "  of  its  supporters. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  125 

to  employ  others,  to  whom  he  held  out  hopes  of  tolera- 
tion, as  tools  for  securing  liberty  to  the  Papists.  This 
had  been  Clarendon's  policy  from  the  beginning.  He 
wrote  from  Breda  on  the  22nd  April,  to  Dr.  Barwick, 
in  these  terms  :  "  It  would  be  no  ill  expedient "  "  to 
assure  them  of  present  good  preferments  in  the  Church." 
"  In  my  own  opinion  you  should  rather  endeavour  to 
win  over  those  who  being  recovered  will  have  both 
reputation  and  desire  to  merit  from  the  Church,  than 
be  over  solicitous  to  comply  with  the  pride  and  passion 
of  those  who  propose  extravagant  things."  *  Claren- 
don, I  believe,  sincerely  desired,  as  a  staunch  Episco- 
palian, to  restore  the  Establishment  upon  its  old  basis, 
nor  do  I  see  any  reason  to  question,  that  he  also 
sincerely  desired  to  bring  Baxter  and  others  within  its 
pale.  With  the  purpose  of  winning  Presbyterians  over 
to  Episcopacy  he  was  willing  to  make  a  few  concessions. 
But,  of  any  genuine  wish  to  base  the  Church  upon  the 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Declaration,  there  is  no 
proof,  and  such  a  wish  is  inconsistent  with  his  known 
attachment  to  Prelacy.  He  had,  it  is  true,  ever  since 
the  return  of  Royalty  became  probable,  shown  great 
moderation  in  his  behaviour  to  the  Puritan  party  ;  but 
this  circumstance  is  quite  consistent  with  the  idea  of 
his  simply  proposing  to  bring  them  over  to  Episco- 
palianism.  Looking  at  the  opinions  of  the  prelates 
already  expressed,  and  afterwards  maintained  at  the 
Savoy,  is  it  possible  that  the  Declaration  could  have 
been  designed  as  a  bond  fide  basis  of  a  Church  settle- 
ment }  The  conclusion  is  inevitable,  that  Clarendon 
aimed  at  accomplishing  his  object  by  such  a  method 
as  statesmen  deem  to  be  justifiable  diplomacy.  After 
the  fate  of  the  Declaration  in  Parliament,  the  aspect  of 
*  Barwick's  "Life,"  525. 


126  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  III. 

affairs  changed  in  reference  to  Presbyterians.  Hopes 
once  raised  were  dashed  to  the  ground.  The  overtures 
of  the  Court  were  seen  to  be  hollow,  and  the  prefer- 
ments offered  were  declined.  Reynolds,  nevertheless, 
retained  the  Bishopric  of  Norwich. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE   RESTORATION.  127 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  treatment  of  the  men  who  had  been  foremost  in 
what  the  Royalists  called  the  Great  Rebellion,  affords 
a  further  and  a  critical  instance  of  the  temper  of 
Parliament.  At  first,  and  for  some  little  time  after- 
wards, the  majority  supported  a  large  measure  of 
oblivion.  Not  more  than  seven  persons  were  excepted 
from  the  Act  of  Indemnity.  But  the  number  speedily 
increased  to  twenty-nine.  Afterwards  it  was  proposed 
that  all  who  sat  on  the  trial  of  Charles  I.,  and  had  not 
surrendered  according  to  a  late  Proclamation,  were  to 
be  excluded  from  the  Act  of  Oblivion,  a  point  carried 
without  any  division.  The  Lords  made  the  Bill  more 
stringent.  They  determined  to  exclude  all  who  had 
signed  the  death-warrant,  or  were  sitting  in  the  court 
when  sentence  was  pronounced,  whether  they  had 
submitted  since  the  Restoration  or  not ;  to  these  the 
Lords  added  the  names  of  Hacker,  Vane,  Lambert, 
Haselrig,  and  Axtell.  Yet  they  struck  out  a  clause, 
reserving  Lenthall  and  others  for  future  punishment. 
The  Commons  had  been  slow  with  the  Act  of  In- 
demnity, notwithstanding  the  salvation  of  many  of 
their  old  friends  was  involved  in  it.  The  Lords  were 
slower  still,  and  both  had  to  be  spurred  on  by  Royal 
messages.  When  the  Bill,  in  its  increased  severity, 
came  down  from  the  Lords,  the  Commons  resisted  the 


128  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

sweeping  amendment  which  excluded  all  the  members 
of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  from  the  general  amnesty. 
They  pleaded  that  such  an  exclusion  would  violate  the 
promise  from  Breda,  and  the  terms  of  the  recent 
Proclamation.  Repeated  conferences  took  place  between 
the  Houses,  and  it  is  visible  that  the  spirit  of  resistance 
to  the  vindictiveness  of  the  Lords  gradually  gave  way, 
and  that  the  violent  Royalists  were  gaining  ground 
amongst  them.  The  Commons  entered  into  a  com- 
promise. Most  of  the  judges  were  excepted  ;  others 
were  reserved  for  lesser  penalties.  About  twenty 
persons,  besides  those  who  had  pronounced  sentence 
in  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  were  incapacitated  for 
any  civil  or  military  office.* 

The  regicides  being  excluded  from  the  Act  of 
Oblivion,  some  of  them  were  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey, 
in  the  month  of  October,  1660.  Amongst  those  who 
then  stood  at  the  bar  were  four  persons  who  have 
appeared,  more  or  less  conspicuously,  in  connection 
with  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Civil  Wars  and 
the  Commonwealth. 

Major-General  Harrison — the  famous  Republican, 
who,  in  the  Little  Parliament  had  opposed  the  tithe 
system,  who  had    plunged    deeply  into    the  study   of 

*  See  the  "  Commons'  Journals,"  May  14,  June  5,  6,  7,  8,  30. 
The  "  Lords'  Journals,"  July  20,  27.  "  Commons'  Journals," 
Aug.  13,  17,  23,  24.  Hallam  gives  a  synopsis  of  these  proceedings, 
and  I  have  ventured  to  adopt  one  or  two  of  his  expressions. 
("Constitutional  History,"  II.  3.)  In  the  Conference  on  the 
23rd  of  August,  Clarendon  told  the  Commons  that  His  Majesty, 
who  was  duly  sensible  of  the  great  wound  he  received  on  that 
fatal  day  (the  day  of  his  father's  execution)  when  the  news  of  it 
came  to  the  Hague,  bore  but  one  part  of  the  tragedy,  for  the 
whole  world  was  sensible  of  it  :  and  particularly  instanced  that  a 
woman  at  the  Hague,  hearing  of  it,  "  fell  down  dead  with  astonish- 
ment." 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  129 

prophecy,  who  had  been  for  some  time  expecting  the 
reign  of  the  saints,  and  who  had  been  involved  in  the 
revohitionary  schemes  of  the  Fifth  Monarchy  men — was 
arraigned  for  having  sat  upon  the  trial  of  his  "late 
Sovereign  Lord  King  Charles  I.,  of  ever  blessed 
memory,"  and  for  having  signed  and  sealed  the  warrant 
for  his  execution.*  He  was  found  guilty,  and  con- 
demned to  die.  With  his  political  fanaticism  there 
blended  other  feelings  ;  and  the  propriety  of  his  de- 
meanour in  prison  was  such,  that  the  woman,  who 
cleaned  his  cell,  and  kindled  his  fire,  declared  she  could 
not  conceive  how  he  deserved  to  be  there,  for  he  was  a 
man  "  full  of  God — there  was  nothing  but  God  in  his 
mouth — and  his  discourse  and  frame  of  heart  would 
melt  the  hardest  of  their  hearts."  f  He  died  expressing 
transports  of  religious  joy. 

Hugh  Peters,  the  military  Divine,  who  had  beat  up 
for  recruits  at  country  market  crosses,  and  carried 
messages  of  victory  from  the  Army  to  the  Commons, 
was  now  condemned  for  stirring  up  the  soldieiy  to 
demand  the  Monarch's  execution,  and  for  giving 
publicity  to  the  Proclamation  for  the  High  Court  of 
Justice.  As  he  was  going  to  execution,  he  replied  to  a 
person  who  abused  him  as  a  regicide,  "  Friend,  you  do 
not  well  to  trample  upon  a  dying  man  ;  you  are  greatly 
mistaken.  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  death  of  the 
King."  Peters,  although  coarse,  vulgar,  and  violent, 
has  been  painted  in  darker  colours  than  he  deserves. 
It  is  certain  that  he  approved  of  the  execution  of  the 
King ;  but  whether  his  complicity  in  the  deed  was 
legally  proved  is  another  question.  That  he  was  one 
of  the  masked  headsmen  on  the  30th  of  January,  1649, 

*  "Trial  of  the  Regicides,"  17. 
t  "  The  Trials  of  Charles  I.,  and  of  some  of  the  Regicides,"  330. 

VOL.    III.  K 


I30  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

is  an  idle  tale  ;  and  of  the  charges  against  his  moral 
character  no  adequate  proof  has  ever  been  adduced. 
Without  any  respect  for  his  memory  I  wish  to  do 
him  justice.  He  has  been  commonly  represented  by 
Royalists  as  an  unprincipled  and  cruel  villain,  steeped 
in  vice,  and  laden  with  crime.  The  facts  of  his  history 
do  not  support  that  indictment ;  they  rather  show  him 
to  have  been  a  sincere,  misguided,  and  unhappy 
enthusiast.* 

Isaac  Pennington,  who  presented  to  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment in  1640  the  famous  "Root  and  Branch"  Petition 
of  the  London  citizens,  was  at  this  time  also  charged 
with  compassing  the  Monarch's  death.  The  Lord  Chief 
Baron  alluded  to  him  in  merciful  t^rms,  and  although 
found  guilty,  his  life  was  spared  through  the  interces- 
sion of  influential  friends.  He  died  a  prisoner  in  the 
Tower,  December  the  17th,  1661.  His  son  Isaac  had 
embraced  Quakerism  ;  and  a  daughter  of  his  wife,  by  a 
former  husband,  became  the  wife  of  William  Penn. 

By  the  side  of  Isaac  Pennington  stood  another  pri- 
soner with  whom  we  are  .already  acquainted — Henry 
Marten.f  Of  his  Revolutionary  opinions,  and  of  his 
active  part  in  the  Whitehall  tragedy,  there  could  be  no 
question,  perhaps  he  had  as  much  to  do  with  it  as  any 
one  ;  yet  after  he  had  been  convicted,  he  threw  himself 
upon  the  mercy  of  Parliament.  In  the  petition  which 
he  presented  he  observed,  with  the  careless  wit  which 
no  misfortune  could  subdue,  that  he  had  surrendered 
himself  upon  the  Restoration  in  consequence  of  the 
King's  "  Declaration  of  Breda,"  and  that  "  since  he  had 
never  obeyed  any  Royal  proclamation  before  this,  he 

*  See  Brooks's  "  Lives  of  the  Puritans,"  III.,  350  and  363. 
t  His  character  and  history  have  been  already  described  in 
these  volumes. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  131 

hoped  that  he  should  not  be  hanged  for  taking  the 
King's  word  now!"*  The  Commons  do  not  appear 
to  have  attempted  anything  in  his  favour ;  but  his 
cause  received  warm  advocacy  when  it  came  before  the 
Lords.  With  a  dash  of  invincible  humour,  the  Re- 
publican pleaded,  that  since  the  honourable  House  of 
Commons,  which  he  before  so  idolized,  had  given  him 
up  to  death,  the  honourable  House  of  Peers,  which  he  had 
so  much  opposed,  especially  in  their  power  of  judica- 
ture, was  now  left  as  a  sanctuary  to  which  he  fled  for  life. 
He  had  submitted  himself  to  His  Majesty's  gracious 
Proclamation,  he  took  hold  of  it,  and  hoped  to  receive 
pardon  through  it.  He  now  submitted  himself  to  His 
Majesty  and  to  the  House  for  mercy.f  Marten  obtained 
what  was  denied  to  men  more  worthy  ;  but  although 
his  life  was  spared,  he  spent  twenty  years  in  prison, 
and  expired  in  Chepstow  Castle,  at  the  age  of  78. | 

The  growth  of  vindictive  loyalty  was  rapid  ;  it  rose 
to  an  alarming  height,  and  assumed  a  frantic  mien, 
when,  after  re-assembling  in  November,  the  Commons 
resolved,  that  the  carcases  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  Heniy 
Ireton,  John  Bradshaw,  and  Thomas  Pride,  whether 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  or  elsewhere,  should  with 
all  expedition  be  taken  up,  drawn  upon  a  hurdle  to 
Tyburn,  there  hanged  up  in  their  cofhns  for  a  time,  and 
afterwards  buried  under  the  gallows.§ 

Leaving  this  horrid  subject,  I  notice  that  at  the 
close  of  the  year  a  consecration  of  new  Bishops  took 

*  Forster's  "Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth,"  III.  356. 

t  "  Lords'  Journals,"  February  7,  1661. 

\  For  the  story  of  the  Regicides  see  "  The  Trial,"  published 
at  the  time,  and  of  modern  publications,  Noble's  "  Regicides  ; " 
Caulfield's  "  High  Court  of  Justice  ;  "  and  "The  Trials  of  Charles 
I.  and  of  some  of  the  Regicides." 

§  "  Commons'  Journals,"  December  4,  and  8,  1660. 


132  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

place.  Of  the  nine  prelates  remaining  alive  at  the 
time,  Juxon,  who  had  been  Bishop  of  London,  was 
translated  to  Canterbury ;  Frewen,  who  had  been 
nominated  by  Charles  I.  to  the  see  of  Lichfield  and 
Coventry,  was  promoted  to  the  Archbishopric  of  York  ; 
and  Duppa,  who  had  held  the  see  of  Salisbury,  was 
transferred  to  the  diocese  of  Winchester.  To  the 
Bishopric  of  London,  vacated  by  the  translation  of 
Juxon,  Sheldon  succeeded,  a  reward  considered  due  for 
unceasing  vigilance  over  Episcopalian  interests  during 
the  Commonwealth.  Morley,  who  had  attended 
Charles  at  the  Hague,  was  appointed  Bishop  of 
Worcester ;  and  Henchman,  who  had  aided  His 
Majesty's  escape  after  the  battle  near  that  city,  became 
Bishop  of  Salisbury.*  But  some  of  the  "hottest 
Divines  "  were  passed  over,  because  their  temper  un- 
fitted them  for  prominent  positions  at  that  time  ;  hence 
Heylyn  arose  to  no  higher  dignity  than  the  Subdeanery 
of  Westminster,  and  Sibthorpe  was  simply  restored  to 
previous  preferments,  which  were  but  small. 

Seven  new  prelates  together  were  consecrated  at 
Westminster  on  Sunday,  the  2nd  of  December :  Cosin, 
the  patristic  scholar,  who  had  been  chaplain  in  the 
household  of  Queen  Henrietta,  as  Bishop  of  Durham  ; 
and  Walton,  the  editor  of  the  "  Polyglott,"  as  Bishop 
of  Chester.  Gauden  also  was  one  of  the  number. 
Though  he  had  remained  in  Cromwell's  Broad  Church, 
it  is  said  that  upon  all  occasions  he  had  taken  worthy 
pains  in  the  pulpit  and  by  the  press  to  rescue  His 
Majesty  and  the  Church  of  England,  from  all  mistaken 
and  heterodox  opinions  of  several  and  different  factions, 
as  well  as  from  the  sacrilegious  hands  of  false  brethren 
whose  scandalous  conversation  was  consummate,  in 
*  Kennet's  "  Register,"  p.  236. 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  133 

devouring  Church  lands,  and  in  impudently  making 
sacrilege  lawful.  He  received  for  these  services  the 
Bishopric  of  Exeter  ;  *  and  at  the  same  time  there  was 
consecrated  with  him,  as  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  Richard 
Sterne,  who  had  suffered  much  from  the  Presbyterians, 
and  had  attended  on  the  scaffold  his  friend,  Archbishop 
Laud.  Laney  designated  to  Peterborough,  Lloyd  to 
Llandafif,  and  Lucy  to  St.  David's,  complete  the  seven. 
Sancroft,  then  domestic  chaplain  to  Bishop  Cosin, 
preached  the  sermon,  in  which  he  defended  diocesan 
Episcopacy,  from  the  words  of  St.  Paul  to  Titus  :  "  For 
this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouldest  set 
in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting,  and  ordain  elders 
in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee."  He  who 
appointed  him,  said  the  preacher,  was  "  not  a  suffragan 
of  St.  Peter,"  "  not  a  disciple  of  Gamaliel,"  "  not  a  dele- 
gate of  the  civil  magistrate,"  but  "an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ."  And  he  who  was  appointed  was  "  a  single 
person  ;  not  a  consistory  of  Presbyters,  or  a  bench  of 
elders,"  and  his  ofhce  was  to  supply  defects,  to  correct 
what  might  be  amiss,  and  to  exercise  the  power  of 
ordination  ;  "  our  most  reverend  Titus "  being  "  a 
genuine  son  and  successor  of  the  apostles."  The 
theological  reader  will  infer  at  once  what  were  the 
arguments  under  each  head,  and  he  may  judge  of  the 
style  and  spirit  of  the  discourse  from  the  following 
passage  :  "  And  blessed  be  this  day  (let  God  regard  it 
from  above,  and  a  more  than  common  light  shine  upon 
it !)  in  which  we  see  the  Phoenix  arising  from  her  funeral 
pile,  and  taking  wdng  again ;  our  Holy  Mother,  the 
Church,  standing  up  from  the  dust  and  ruins  in  which 
she  sate  so  long,  taking  beauty  again  for  ashes,  and  the 

*  Wood's  "Athen.  Oxen."  (Bliss),   III.  613.     Further   notice 
of  these  Bishops  will  be  supplied  hereafter. 


134  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

garments  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness,  remount- 
ing the  Episcopal  throne,  bearing  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  with  her,  and  armed  (we  hope)  with 
the  rod  of  discipline  ;  her  hands  spread  abroad,  to  bless 
and  to  ordain,  to  confirm  the  weak,  and  to  reconcile  the 
penitent ;  her  breasts  flowing  with  the  sincere  milk  of 
the  word,  and  girt  with  a  golden  girdle  under  the  paps, 
tying  up  all  by  a  meet  limitation  and  restriction  to 
primitive  patterns,  and  prescripts  apostolical.  A  sight  so 
venerable  and  august,  that  methinks,  it  should  at  once 
strike  love  and  fear  into  every  beholder,  and  an  awful 
veneration.  I  may  confidently  say  it.  It  was  never 
well  with  us,  since  we  strayed  from  the  due  reverence 
we  owed  to  Heaven  and*  her ;  and  it  is  strange  we 
should  no  sooner  observe  it,  but  run  a  maddening 
after  other  lovers  that  ruined  us,  till  God  hedged  in 
our  way  with  thorns,  that  we  could  no  longer  find  them, 
and  then  we  said,  I  will  go  and  return  to  my  former 
husband,  for  then  was  it  better  with  me  than  now."  * 

Eight  Bishops  of  the  Irish  Church  were  still  living. 
Bramhall  was  translated  to  the  primacy  as  Archbishop 
of  Armagh.  Nominations  to  vacant  Sees  followed,  in- 
cluding that  of  Jeremy  Taylor  to  the  diocese  of  Down 
and  Connor,  upon  Henry  Lesley  being  translated  to 
Meath  ;  but  his  consecration  was  delayed  until  the  27th 
of  January,  1661,  when  ten  new  Bishops,  and  two  old 
ones  promoted  to  the  Archiepiscopate,  were  solemnly 
set  apart  in  Saint  Patrick's  Cathedral,  Dublin.  The 
consecration  of  so  many  at  one  time  has  been  pro- 
nounced, "  an  event  probably  without  a  parallel  in  the 
Church."  t 

*  D'Oyley's  "  Life  of  Sancroft,"  II.  346. 

t  Mant's  "  History  of  the  Church  of  Ireland,"  I.  611.     Taylor 
preached  a  sermon  on  Episcopacy.     "  Works,"  VI.  301. 


i 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  135 

We  have  crossed,  almost  unconsciously,  from  England 
to  Ireland.  Between  lies  the  Isle  of  Man  ;  and  this 
reminds  us  of  what  was  going  on  there,  a  short  time 
before  the  remarkable  consecration  at  Dublin.  In  the 
autumn  of  1660,  Commissioners  were  engaged  in  reduc- 
ing to  order  ecclesiastical  affairs.  They  summoned  the 
clerg}^  before  them  to  exhibit  their  letters  of  orders  and 
of  presentation  ;  they  enforced  the  use  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  the  practice  of  catechizing,  the  keeping  also 
of  feasts  and  fasts,  including  the  days  of  King  Charles 
and  Earl  James'  martyrdom.  The  observance  of  Lent 
was  afterwards  enjoined,  with  the  customary  penalties 
and  with  provision  for  dispensations.  Parish  discipline 
was  established  according  to  canon  law  ;  and,  without 
any  ejectment  or  any  opposition,  the  portion  of  the 
Church  existing  in  that  island  submitted  at  once  to 
Episcopalian  rule.* 

Returning  to  England,  I  remark  that  since  certain 
old  laws  were  deemed  by  Churchmen  as  still  in  force, 
notwithstanding  the  legislation  of  the  last  twenty  years, 
they  constituted  an  arsenal  of  weapons,  with  which 
magistrates  and  others  could,  if  they  were  disposed, 
grievously  disturb  their  Puritan  neighbours.  The 
Canon  law  prohibited  dissent  from  the  Church  under 
pain  of  excommunication.  The  same  penalty  was 
threatened  against  all  who  affirmed  that  ministers  not 
subscribing  to  the  form  of  worship  in  the  Communion 
Book,  might  "  truly  take  unto  them  the  name  of 
another  Church  not  established  by  law,"  or  that 
religious  assemblies  other  than  such  as  by  the  law  of 
the  land  were  allowed,  might  rightly  challenge  the 
name  of  true  Churches,  or  that  it  was  lawful  for  any 
sort  of  ministers  or  lay  persons,  to  join  together  to 
*  Keble's  "Life  of  Bishop  Wilson,"  I.  132. 


136  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

make  ecclesiastical  rules  or  constitutions  without  the 
King's  authority.  No  minister,  without  licence  of  the 
Bishop,  could  presume  to  hold  meetings  for  sermons. 
As  all  conventicles  were  hurtful  to  the  state  of  the 
Church,  no  ministers  or  other  persons  were  to  assemble 
in  any  private  house  or  elsewhere  for  ecclesiastical 
purposes,  under  pain  of  excommunication.*  As  to 
Statute  law,  the  i  Eliz.  c.  2,  required  all  persons  to 
resort  to  Church  every  Sunday  and  every  day  ordained 
a  holiday.  The  penalty  of  disobedience  was  a  shilling 
fine,  with  Church  censure  for  every  offence.  The 
23  Eliz.  c.  I,  made  the  fine  twenty  pounds  a  month, 
and  the  offender  who  persevered  for  twelve  months  had 
to  be  bound  to  good  behaviour  with  two  sureties  in  two 
hundred  pounds,  until  he  conformed.  To  keep  a 
school-master  who  did  not  attend  Church,  incurred 
a  monthly  fine  of  ten  pounds.  The  29  Eliz.  c.  6,  em- 
powered the  Queen,  by  process  out  of  the  Exchequer, 
to  seize  the  goods  and  two  parts  of  the  real  property 
of  offenders,  upon  default  of  paying  their  fines.  The 
35  Eliz.  c.  I,  made  the  frequenting  of  conventicles 
punishable  by  imprisonment.  Those  who  after  con- 
viction would  not  submit  were  to  abjure  the  realm. 
Refusal  to  abjure  was  felony,  without  benefit  of  clergy.f 
These  laws,  however,  do  not  suggest  a  full  idea  of  all 
the  inconvenience  and  suffering  to  which  Noncon- 
formists, before  the  Civil  War,  had  been  exposed.  That 
we  may  understand  fully  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  were  placed,  we  must  add  the  activity  of  spiritual 
courts,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  High  Commission,  and 
the  indefinite  powers  of  the  Crown.  Nor  do  these  laws, 
statute  and  canon,  exhibit  all  the  forces  of  oppression 

*  "  Canons,"  9-12,  72,  T^,. 

t  See  also  3  Jac,  4  ;  21  Jac,  4. 


1660. J  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  137 

which  continued  to  exist  after  the  Restoration,  and 
before  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  forces 
which  could  be  brought  into  play  at  any  moment,  and 
in  any  situation.  Spiritual  courts,  it  is  true,  had  not 
yet  been  re-established,  the  High  Commission  no 
longer  existed.  The  power  of  the  Crown  had  received 
a  check  ;  but  in  addition  to  laws  prohibitory  of  religious 
gatherings  outside  the  Establishment,  there  stood  a 
law  enjoining  the  Oath  of  Supremacy,  which  could  not 
be  taken  by  Papists,  and  was  objected  to  by  some 
Protestant  Dissenters.  The  statute,  which  had  sent 
More  and  Fisher  to  the  block,  brought  sorrow  upon  a 
large  number  of  unknown  persons,  who,  on  a  different 
principle  from  that  adopted  by  those  sufferers,  objected 
strongly  to  Royal  Supremacy  over  causes  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  civil.  Their  resistance  and  their  trouble, 
together  with  the  perplexity  of  magistrates  respecting 
them,  are  illustrated  in  the  following  extract  of  a  letter 
written  from  Bristol,  in  the  autumn  of  1660  :  "  Be 
pleased  to  take  notice  that  no  Quaker,  or  rarely  any 
Anabaptist,  will  take  these  oaths  ;  so  that  the  said 
oaths  are  refused  by  many  hundreds  of  their  judgment, 
being  persons  of  very  dangerous  principles,  and  great 
enemies  in  this  city  to  His  Majesty's  royal  person, 
government,  and  restoration,  and  some  of  them  [were] 
petitioners  to  bring  his  martyred  Majesty,  of  blessed 
memory,  to  his  trial,  and  will  undoubtedly  fly  out  again 
and  kick  up  the  heel  against  his  sovereign  authority, 
should  it  be  in  their  power,  therefore  [they]  are  not 
worthy  His  Majesty's  protection,  refusing  to  swear 
loyalty  to  him.  Besides,  their  said  refusal,  if  suspended 
or  connived  at,  will  cause  a  general  discontent  and 
repining  in,  by  those  His  Majesty's  loyal  subjects  who 
have  already  taken,  or  are  to  take  the  said  oaths  ;  for 


138  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

'tis  already  the  language  of  many  of  them,  and  these 
not  a  few,  'Why  should  any  oaths  be  imposed  on  or 
required  of  us  .?  and  the  Quakers,  Anabaptists,  and 
others.  His  Majesty's  enemies,  be  gratified  with  a  sus- 
pension thereof  And  'tis  the  answer  of  others,  '  If 
the  Quakers,  Anabaptists,  and  others  of  dangerous 
practices  and  principles  do,  or  are  enforced  to,  take  the 
said  oaths,  then  will  we.  In  the  interim,  we  want  the 
same  liberty  which  is  to  them  afforded.'  "  The  writer 
next  asks  instructions  to  guide  him  in  his  perplexity. 
"  Sir,"  he  continues, "these,  I  had  almost  said,  monsters 
of  men  with  us  are,  yea  more  numerous  than  in  all  the 
West  of  England  ;  and  here  they  all  centre  and  have 
their  meetings,  at  all  seasons  till  9  of  the  clock  at  night, 
and  later  ; — sometimes  about  1000  or  1200  at  a  time, — 
to  the  great  afifrightening  of  this  city  as  to  what  will  be 
consequent  thereof  if  not  restrained,  or  should  a  sus- 
pension of  the  said  oaths  be  to  them  given."  * 

Many  persons  had  to  suffer  severely.  In  Wales  the 
fire  was  first  kindled,  and  burnt  most  fiercely.  Before 
the  King  landed  at  Dover  the  Episcopalians  in  the 
Principality  busied  themselves  in  persecuting  Quakers. 
Several  Nonconformists  were  imprisoned  at  Caermar- 
then,  and  the  gaol  at  Montgomery  was  so  filled  with 
them  that  the  gaoler  had  to  pack  them  into  garrets. 
Pitiful  stories,  with  some  exaggerations  perhaps,  are 
told  of  sufferers  in  the  May  and  June  of  1660,  who  were 
dragged  out  of  their  beds  to  prison,  or  like  stray  cattle 
driven  into  parish  pounds,  or  led  in  chains  to  the 
Quarter  Sessions.  If  violence  with  so  wide  a  sweep 
did  not  rage  on  our  side  the  border,  the  confessors  for 

*  The  letter  is  written  by  R.  Ellsworth,  "  Bristol,  this  24th 
of  November,  1660,"  and  is  addressed  to  Sir  E.  Nicholas. 
("  State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.") 


1660.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  139 

conscience'  sake  in  England  were  nevertheless  numerous 
enough.  In  that  transitional  state  of  things  all  sorts  of 
irregular  proceedings  took  place.  Even  Philip  Henry 
could  not  preach  in  quiet,  but  was  presented  in  the 
month  of  September,  at  the  Flint  assizes,  for  not  read- 
ing the  Common  Prayer.  John  Howe  also  fell  into 
trouble  for  what  he  had  said  in  the  pulpit ;  and  it  is  not 
generally  remembered  that  long  before  the  Uniformity, 
the  Conventicle,  and  the  Five  Mile  Acts  were  passed, 
John  Bunyan  was  cast  into  Bedford  gaol.  In  England, 
as  well  as  in  Wales,  many  Quakers  and  Anabaptists 
suffered  a  loathsome  imprisonment.  If,  in  London, 
Nonconformity  was  strong,  in  the  provinces  it  was 
rapidly  becoming  otherwise.  Bishops  were  busy,  Epis- 
copalian Rectors  were  being  restored,  and  Loyal  Cor- 
porations were  getting  more  and  more  noisy  in  their 
zeal  for  Church  and  Crown.  Grey-headed  squires,  and 
nobles  in  Cavalier  plumes  and  doublets,  with  courtly 
dames  in  rustling  silks,  and  with  children  in  bright- 
coloured  sashes,  and  attended  by  servants  clothed  in 
gay  liveries,  sat  with  joy  before  the  crackling  yule  log 
that  merry  Christmas  ;  and  when  the  boar's  head  and 
the  roast  beef  had  been  despatched,  they  related  stories 
of  the  King,*  and  told  their  sons  and  daughters  of  the 

*  "  It  is  said  when  His  Majesty  was  at  primal  prayers  in  his 
presence-chamber,  and  seeing  all  on  their  knees  but  the  Earl 
of  Manchester,  his  chamberlain,  who  stood  by  him  (a  Presby- 
terian), His  Majesty  suddenly  took  a  cushion,  and  said,  '  My 
Lord,  there  is  a  cushion,  you  may  now  kneel  ; '  which  for  shame 
he  was  glad  patiently  to  do.    O  meek,  O  zealous,  O  pious  prince  !^" 

And  again,  upon  settling  the  King's  household  in  Charles  I.'s 
time,  "  His  Majesty  declares  that  his  officers  should  collect  out 
of  the  same  all  such  wholesome  orders,  decrees,  and  directions 
as  may  tend  most  to  the  planting,  establishing,  and  coun- 
tenancing of  virtue  and  piety  in  his  family,  and  to  the  dis- 
countenancing of  all  manner  of  disorder,  debauchery,  and  vice 
in  any  person  of  what  degree  or  quahty  soever."  (Townshend's 
"  Diary,"  Oct.  23,  1660.) 


HO  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

gay  doings  and  meny  games  of  their  own  young  days. 
The  mistletoe  hanging  in  the  hall  corresponded  with 
the  holly  suspended  in  the  Church  ;  and  the  service, 
which  members  of  these  parties  had  heard  that  Christ- 
mas morning  for  the  first  time,  as  they  sat  in  the  old 
family  pew,  harmonized  with  the  pleasant  festivities  of 
the  afternoon  and  evening.  Puritanism  had  been  to 
them  a  religion  of  restraint,  and  now  the  return  of 
Bishops  and  Prayer  Books  brought  freedom  and  joy. 
Of  course  there  were  sentiments  of  a  far  higher  order 
cherished  at  that  season,  but  the  existence  of  much 
of  the  feeling  now  described  may  be  taken  for  granted. 

Other  ceremonies  besides  those  immediately  con- 
cerned with  Christmas  time  appeared  that  winter. 
Newspaper  letters  from  Exeter,  dated  the  29th  of 
December,  1660,  announced  the  joyful  welcome  of  Dr. 
Gauden,  the  new  Bishop  of  the  diocese,  who  had  been 
met  by  most  of  the  gentry,  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty,  and  escorted  by  the  High  Sheriff, 
with  nearly  five  times  as  many  horse ;  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  in  scarlet  and  fur,  waiting  on  his  Lordship, 
amidst  the  ringing  of  bells.  A  week  later,  Londoners 
saw,  in  the  public  prints,  a  glowing  account  of  a  public 
Episcopalian  christening  at  Dover,  a  most  significant 
service  in  a  town  where  Anabaptists  were  numerous. 
So  great  a  concourse,  it  is  reported,  had  seldom  been 
seen,  the  Mayor  being  obliged  to  make  way  that  the 
children  might  reach  the  font,  which  had  not  been  used 
for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  had  now,  by  the  care  and 
prudence  of  the  Churchwardens,  been  set  up  for  this 
solemnity. 

The  reaction  against  the  Puritanism  of  the  Common- 
wealth, visible  in  so  many  ways,  received  a  fresh  impulse 
from    the    insurrection    of  Venner  and    his   associates. 


I 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  141 

This  fanatical  wine-cooper  had  been  before  laying  plots  : 
in  the  month  of  April,  1657,  he  and  his  confederates, 
after  conferring  at  a  Meeting  House  in  Swan  Alley,  had 
assembled  on  Mile  End  Green,  when  Cromwell  sent  a 
troop  of  horse,  and  seized  him,  with  twenty  other  ring- 
leaders. The  cause  of  Fifth  Monarchism,  during  the 
season  of  confusion  consequent  upon  the  resignation  of 
the  Protector  Richard,  reappeared,  and  made  itself 
heard  through  its  irrepressibly  loquacious  advocates, 
Rogers  and  Feake.  The  revival  of  their  tenets,  in 
connection  with  a  renewal  of  pure  Republicanism  under 
Sir  Henry  Vane  and  his  party,  was  of  short  duration  ; 
and  there  is  nothing  noticeable,  in  connection  with  this 
form  of  religious  sentiment,  until  Venner's  second  out- 
break. 

Instead  of  narrating  that  incident  in  words  of  my 
own,  I  shall  use  a  letter,  written  in  the  midst  of  the 
excitement.  The  circumstances  mentioned  at  the 
close,  although  below  the  dignity  of  history,  are  too 
amusing  to  be  omitted. 

The  writer  is  Sir  John  Finch  ;  he  directs  his  letter  to 
Lord  Conway  : — "  My  dearest  and  best  Lord, — As  for 
news,  my  last  acquainted  you  with  the  Duchess  of 
York's  coming  to  Court.  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  the 
child  was  christened  Charles,  and  created  Duke  of 
Cambridge,  and  that  His  Majesty  in  person  and  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle  were  godfathers,  and  my  Lady  of 
Ormond  personated  the  Queen  for  godmother.  Our 
great  news  here  is,  that  since  His  Majesty's  departure 
to  Portsmouth  there  have  been  two  great  alarms.  Upon 
Sunday  night  about  fifty  Fifth  Monarchy  men,  at  ten 
o'clock,  came  to  Mr.  Johnson,  a  bookseller  at  the  north 
gate  of  St.  Paul's,  and  there  demanded  the  keys  of  the 
Church,  which  he  either  not  having,  or  refusing,  they 


142  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

broke  open  the  door,  and,  setting  their  sentries,  examined 
the  passengers  who  they  were  for,  and  one  with  a 
lantern  replying  that  he  was  for  King  Charles,  they 
answered  that  they  were  for  King  Jesus,  and  shot  him 
through  the  head,  where  he  lay  as  a  spectacle  all  the 
next  day.  This  gave  the  alarm  to  the  mainguard  at 
the  Exchange,  who  sent  four  files  of  musketeers  to 
reduce  them.  But  the  Fifth  Monarchy  men  made  them 
run,  which  so  terrified  the  City,  that  the  Lord  Mayor 
in  person  came  with  his  troop  to  reduce  them.  Before 
he  arrived  they  drew  off,  and  at  Aldersgate  forced  the 
constable  to  open  the  gate,  and  so  marched  through 
Whitecross  Street,  where  they  killed  another  constable, 
and  so  went  into  the  woods  near  Highgate,  where  being 
almost  famished,  on  Wednesday  morning,  about  five  of 
the  clock,  fell  again  into  the  City,  and,  with  a  mad 
courage,  fell  upon  the  guard  and  beat  them,  which  put 
the  City  into  such  confusion,  that  the  King's  Life  and 
all  the  City  regiments  advanced  against  them.  These 
forty  men  beat  the  Life  Guard  and  a  whole  regiment 
for  half  an  hour's  time.  They  refused  all  quarter  ;  but 
at  length,  Venner,  their  captain,  a  wine-cooper,  after  he 
had  received  three  shots,  was  taken,  and  nine  more, 
and  twenty  slain.  Six  got  into  a  house,  and  refusing 
quarter,  and  with  their  blunderbusses  defending  them- 
selves, were  slain.  The  Duke  and  the  Duke  of 
Albemarle,  with  700  horse,  fell  into  the  City ;  but  all 
was  over  before  they  came.  This,  my  Lord,  is  strange, 
that  all  that  are  alive,  being  maimed,  not  one  person 
will  confess  anything  concerning  their  accomplices,  cry- 
ing that  they  will  not  betray  the  servants  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  the  kings  of  the  earth.  Ludlow  Major  is  com- 
mitted close  to  the  Tower  for  saying  he  would  kill  the 
King.     These  things  have  produced  their  effects  :  that 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  143 

no  man  shall  have  any  arms  that  are  not  registered  ; 
that  no  man  shall  live  in  the  City  that  takes  not  the 
Oath  of  Allegiance  ;  that  no  person  of  any  sect  shall, 
out  of  his  own  house,  exercise  religious  duties,  nor 
admit  any  into  his  house  under  penalty  of  arrest,  which 
troubles  the  Quakers  and  Anabaptists,  who  profess 
they  knew  not  of  this  last  business.  And,  besides  all 
this.  His  Majesty  is  resolved  to  raise  a  new  Army,  and 
the  general  is  not  known  ;  but  I  believe  it  will  be  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle,  rather  than  the  Duke  of  York  or 
Prince  Rupert,  in  regard  he  hath  the  office  by  patent, 
and  in  regard  of  his  eminent  services.  The  Duke  took 
it  very  unkind  of  my  Lord  Chamberlain  that  upon  in- 
formation of  Prince  Rupert's  attendants,  his  Lordship, 
in  the  Duke's  absence,  searched  his  cellar  for  gun- 
powder, it  being  under  the  King's  seat  at  the  Cockpit, 
and  the  Duke  with  his  own  hands  so  cudgelled  the 
informer  that  he  hath  almost  maimed  him  ;  and  Prince 
Rupert  assured  the  Duke  that  he  so  resented  it,  that 
he  was  not  content  to  put  away  his  servant,  but  offered 
to  fight  any  person  that  set  the  design  on  foot.  How- 
ever, the  business  is  not  made  up,  though  my  Lord 
Chamberlain  told  the  Duke  he  had  done  over  hastily. 
The  Princess  Henrietta  is  sick  of  the  measles  on  ship- 
board ;  but  out  of  danger  of  wind.  Dr.  Frasier  hath  let 
her  blood  ;  I  hope  with  better  success  than  the  rest  of 
the  royal  blood  have  had."  * 

It  may  be  mentioned,  that  this  insurrection  had  been 
hatched  at  the  same  place  as  the  former  one  ;  and  the 
conspirators  are  said  to  have  marched  first  to  Rogers' 
old  quarters  at  St.  Thomas  the  Apostle,  to  join  nine  of 
the  party,  and  thence  to  Whitecross  Street.  It  came 
as  the  expiring  flash  of  a  fanatical  creed,  which  had 
*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,"  1661,  January  nth. 


144  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

blended  itself  with  Puritanism,  greatly  to  the  detriment 
of  the  latter ;  and,  dying  out  rather  slowly,  it  left 
behind  the  quiet  element  of  Millenarianism,  which,  at 
the  present  day,  we  find  largely  infused  into  the  tenets 
of  a  considerable  class  of  Christians.  Venner's  explo- 
sion occurred  on  the  6th  of  January ;  but  it  is  remark- 
able, that  four  days  before  that  date,  an  order  was 
issued  from  Council,  forbidding  the  meetings  of  Ana- 
baptists, Quakers,  and  other  sectaries,  in  large  numbers, 
and  at  unusual  times,  and  restricting  their  assembling 
to  their  own  parishes.  Rumours  of  plots  are  alleged 
as  reasons  for  the  decision  thus  adopted  upon  the  2nd 
of  January ;  but  that  decision  plainly  shows,  that  ere 
the  insane  enthusiasts  of  Coleman  Street  had  fired  a 
shot,  whatever  liberty  had  been  conceded  at  Worcester 
House  was  now  to  suffer  great  abridgment.  Venner's 
insurrection  could  not  be  the  cause  of  curtailing  the 
liberty  of  the  subject  at  that  moment,  though  it  proved 
a  plausible  argument  for  the  Proclamation  which 
followed.  The  Proclamation  appeared  four  days  after 
the  riot ;  yet  the  terms  of  the  document  agree  so  closely 
with  those  employed  in  the  records  of  Council,  as  to 
indicate  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  reference  to  the 
disturbance  of  the  peace  by  bloodshed  and  murder, 
and  some  mention  of  Fifth  Monarchy  men,  little  or  no 
alteration  could  have  been  made  in  the  phraseology. 
All  meetings,  except  those  held  in  parochial  churches 
and  chapels,  or  in  private  houses  by  the  inhabitants, 
were  declared  seditious,  and  were  peremptorily  for- 
bidden.* 

Against  Venner's  insurrection  the  Independents  pro- 

*  The  entry  in  the  Council  Book,  and  the  subsequent  Pro- 
clamation, are  printed  in  Kennet's  "  Register,"  under  dates 
January  2nd  and  loth. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  145 

tested  ;  disowning  "  the  principles  of  a  Fifth  Monarchy, 
or  the  personal  reign  of  King  Jesus  on  earth,  as  dis- 
honourable to  Him  and  prejudicial  to  His  Church,"  and 
abhorring  "  the  propagating  this  or  any  other  opinion 
by  force  or  blood."  *  The  Baptists  declared  their 
obedience  to  Government,  and  expressed  a  hope  that 
they  might  enjoy  what  had  been  granted  by  His 
Majesty's  Declaration,  and  be  protected  like  other 
subjects,  from  injury  and  violence.!  The  Quakers  also 
expressed  their  loyalty  ;  praying  that  their  meetings 
might  not  be  broken  up,  and  that  their  imprisoned 
members  might  be  set  at  liberty.  But  these  addresses 
neither  blunted  the  edge  of  Royal  displeasure,  nor 
removed  the  public  suspicion  that  many  Noncon- 
formists sympathized  with  Fifth  Monarchists.  Peace- 
able subjects,  therefore,  suffered  insult  and  interruption. 
Horns  were  blown  at  the  doors  of  their  houses,  and 
stones  were  thrown  at  them  whilst  they  were  at  prayer  ; 
also,  magistrates  enforced  the  Oath  of  Allegiance, 
which  many  Nonconformists,  on  different  grounds, 
declined  to  take.  Sir  John  Maynard  informed  Lord 
Mordaunt  that  so  many  refused  to  swear  that  he  did 
not  know  what  to  do  :  some  because  they  would  not 
swear  at  all ;  others  because  they  would  not  enter  into 
promissory  obligations  ;  others  because,  as  the  King 
had  taken  no  oath  to  obey  the  laws,  they  would  take 
no  oath  to  obey  the  King.J 

Amongst  other  methods  of  annoyance  was  that  of 
opening  suspected  letters,  a  practice  of  which  numerous 
illustrations  will  presently  appear.  "  I  wrote  a  letter 
at  this  time,"  says  Richard  Baxter,  "  to  my  mother-in- 
law,  containing  nothing  but  our  usual  matter.     Even 

*   Neal,  IV.  311.  t  Crosby,  II.  108. 

X  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,"  1661,  January  19th. 
VOL.    III.  L 


146  .  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IV. 

encouragements  to  her  in  her  age  and  weakness, 
fetched  from  the  nearness  of  her  rest,  together  with  the 
report  of  the  news,  and  some  sharp  and  vehement 
words  against  the  rebels.  By  the  means  of  Sir  John 
Packington,  or  his  soldiers,  the  post  was  searched,  and 
my  letter  intercepted,  opened,  and  revised,  and  by  Sir 
John  sent  up  to  London  to  the  Bishop  and  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  so  that  it  was  a  wonder,  that  having  read 
it,  they  were  not  ashamed  to  send  it  up  ;  but  joyful 
would  they  have  been,  could  they  but  have  found  a 
word  in  it  which  could  possibly  have  been  distorted  to 
an  evil  sense,  that  malice  might  have  had  its  prey.  I 
went  to  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  complained  of  this 
usage,  and  that  I  had  not  the  common  liberty  of  a 
subject,  to  converse  by  letters  with  my  own  family. 
He  disowned  it,  and  blamed  men's  rashness,  but 
excused  it  from  the  distempers  of  the  times  ;  and  he 
and  the  Bishops  confessed  they  had  seen  the  letter, 
and  there  was  nothing  in  it  but  what  was  good  and 
pious.  And  two  days  after  came  the  Lord  Windsor, 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  County,  and  Governor  of 
Jamaica,  with  Sir  Charles  Littleton,  the  King's  cup- 
bearer, to  bring  me  my  letter  again  to  my  lodgings  ; 
and  the  Lord  Windsor  told  me,  the  Lord  Chancellor 
appointed  him  to  do  it.  After  some  expression  of  my 
sense  of  the  abuse,  I  thanked  him  for  his  great  civility 
and  favour.  Btit  I  saw  how  far  that  sort  of  men  were 
to  be  trusted!'  * 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  301.  No  date  is  given,  it  is 
only  said  that  the  circumstance  occurred  at  the  time  of  Venner's 
insurrection. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  time  had  arrived  for  calling  a  new  Parliament, 
since  the  Convention  lacked  certain  constitutional 
attributes  :  and  it  seemed  a  further  reason  for  sum- 
moning another  House  of  Commons,  that  the  Presby- 
terians in  the  Convention,  notwithstanding  secessions 
from  their  ranks,  were  still  too  numerous,  and  too 
troublesome,  to  be  well  managed  by  the  Court.  Writs 
were  issued  upon  the  9th  of  March,  1661  ;  and,  in  ten 
days,  the  whole  country  was  found  uproariously  busy 
in  the  election  of  Knights  and  Burgesses.  The  City 
of  London  took  the  lead ;  and,  as  so  much  new  and 
curious  information  on  the  subject  is  afforded  by 
letters  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  I  shall  largely  make 
use  of  them  in  the  present  chapter.  It  was  known  that 
the  new  Parliament  would  have  important  ecclesiastical 
questions  to  settle,  and  therefore  a  great  deal  of 
religious  feeling  became  mixed  up  with  the  political 
sentiments  of  the  electors. 

The  Guildhall  of  the  City  of  London,  though  mag- 
nificently restored  very  recently,  carries  back  our 
thoughts  to  distant  days,  but  it  has  rarely,  if  ever, 
contained  within  its  walls  a  throng  so  densely  packed, 
or  been  filled  with  shouts  so  dissonant,  as  on  the  19th 
of  March,  1661.  In  confused  ways,  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  some  of  the  Aldermen  were  proposed  as  candidates  : 


148  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

Recorder  Wylde,  Sir  John  Robinson,  Sir  Richard 
Ford,  Sir  Thomas  Bloworth,  Sir  Nicholas  Crisp,  and 
Alderman  Adams,  stood  on  the  Royalist  side  ■  on  the 
popular  side,  appeared  Alderman  Thompson  and  Alder- 
man Love,  "  godly  men,  and  of  good  parts,  Congre- 
gationalists,"  Captain  Jones,  a  Presbyterian,  and 
Alderman  Foulke,  "  not  much  noted  for  religion,  but 
a  countenancer  of  good  ministers,  one  who  was  present 
at  the  act  for  abolishing  Kingly  Government,"  and 
"  deeply  engaged  in  Bishops'  lands."  Recorder  Wylde, 
and  Sir  John  Robinson,  with  Sir  Richard  Brown,  and 
William  Vincent,  had  been  City  Members  of  the  Con- 
vention Parliament ;  but  the  citizens  disliked  them, 
because  they  were  not  sufficiently  advanced  in  political 
sentiments,  and  also  because  they  had  not  opposed  the 
abolition  of  Purveyance,  and  the  Court  of  Wards,  the 
imposition  of  the  Excise,  and  the  levying  of  Poll 
Money.  The  tide  just  then  ran  strongly  in  favour  of 
ultra-dissent.  The  candidates  of  the  Royalist  party, 
except  Ford,  had  scarcely  a  word  spoken  in  their 
favour.  The  Recorder's  name,  Wylde,  awakened  rude 
shouts,  amidst  which  might  be  heard  a  feeble  pun  : 
"  We  have  been  too  wild  already."  Episcopacy  stood 
at  a  discount,  and  the  old  Hall  echoed  with  cries  of 
"  No  Bishops,  no  Bishops."  Ten  thousand  citizens  in 
livery,  no  doubt  an  exaggeration,  were  computed  to  be 
present ;  but  the  multitude,  whatever  the  exact  number, 
seemed  of  one  mind.  A  shrewd  courtier  in  one  corner 
whispered  to  an  elector,  that  he  hoped  what  was  going 
on  there  would  be  a  warning  to  the  Bishops.  The 
caUing  of  nicknames,  and  the  outpouring  of  ridicule, 
were  shared,  in  nearly  equal  portions,  by  the  two 
parties.  The  Royalists  pelted  their  opponents  with 
scurrilous   abuse,   yet   they   seemed    to   have   nothing 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  149 

worse  to  say  of  Alderman  Thompson  than  "  that  he 
was  a  rare  pedlar  ;  so  fond  of  smoking,  that  his  breath 
would  poison  a  whole  Committee."  Jones  was  also 
reproached  for  smoking  ;  but  the  Captain  was  admitted 
by  an  opponent  to  be  an  honest  man,  if  amongst  such 
a  party  there  could  be  one.*  No  applause  equalled 
that  which  his  name  called  forth ;  and  when  the 
opposite  party  would  have  had  him  omitted,  "  the 
Court  never  left  off  crying,  *  A  Jones  !  a  Jones  ! '  till  it 
was  otherwise  resolved."  Only  a  few  hands  were  held 
up  for  the  Recorder  and  his  friends.  The  election  was 
all  but  unanimous,  and  no  poll  was  demanded  by  the 
candidates  defeated  at  the  hustings. 

Some  Nonconforming  ministers  are  noticed  as  in- 
teresting themselves  in  this  election,  though  "others, 
like  Demas,"  wounded  "  their  consciences  by  complying 
somewhat."  In  an  election  squib,  called  "  A  Dialogue 
between  the  two  Giants  in  Guildhall,"  one  Congre- 
gational pastor  is  said  "  to  bring  a  hundred,  another  of 
the  holders  forth  sixty,  to  the  destruction  of  the  beast." 
And  as  Gog  and  Magog  are  represented  discussing  the 
matter,  one  of  them,  referring  to  the  union  of  Presby- 
terians and  Independents  in  the  election,  observes,  "  I 
thought  these  two,  like  two  buckets,  could  not  possibly 
be  weighed  up  together."  "Yes,"  says  his  brother 
giant,  "  there  is  an  engine  called  Necessity,  made  with 
the  screws  of  Interest,  that  doth  it  seciindiim  artem." 
Of  course  such  publications  are  worth  nothing  as 
witnesses  to  political  facts,  but  they  vividly  bring  to 
light  the  political  contest ;  and  as  they  repeat  the 
rumours,  they  reveal  the  hatreds  which  influenced  the 

*  "  Loyal  Subject's  Lamentation  for  London's  perverseness  in 
the  malignant  choice  of  some  rotten  Members  on  Tuesday,  19th 
March  1661." 


150  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

contending  factions.  Certain  persons  are  mentioned 
as  taking  part  in  the  City  strife  in  other  ways  than  by 
heading  mobs.  "Mr.  Carill,"  as  the  author  of  the 
famous  Commentary  on  Job  is  called,  "  and  other 
eminent  ministers,  held  a  fast,  and  prayed  heartily,  and 
God  has  heard  them,"  writes  an  Independent  to  a 
friend  in  Norwich ;  but  Zachary  Crofton  is  most 
frequently  mentioned  as  a  champion  on  the  side  of 
the  anti-episcopalian  party.  "A  subtle,  witty  man," 
"  bitter  against  the  Bishops,"  and  "  a  great  vexation  to 
them."  He  "  prosecuted  his  argument  last  Lord's 
Day,  and  there  were  more  people  than  could  get  into 
the  Church."  "  Thank  God,"  says  one,  "  that  Mr. 
Crofton  is  still  at  liberty ;  he  preaches  that  Bishops  are 
a  human  institution,  and  lead  to  the  Papacy."  "  Little 
Crofton,"  says  another,  "  preaches  against  Bishop 
Gauden  every  Sunday  night,  with  an  infinite  auditory, 
itching,  and  applause."  Others,  like  Crofton,  won 
popularity  by  political  harangues.  "  All  who  oppose 
Prelacy,"  observes  a  correspondent,  who  evidently 
opposed  it  himself,  and  no  doubt  went  to  hear  the 
men,  whom  he  so  admiringly  mentions,  "  are  mightily 
followed  as  Dr.  Seaman  and  others."  "  Mr.  Grafifen 
had  two  thousand  in  the  streets,  who  could  not  get 
into  the  Tantling  Meeting  House,  to  hear  him  bang 
the  Bishops,  which  theme  he  doth  most  exquisitely 
handle."  Crofton  is  often  referred  to  in  these  letters. 
He  was  prosecuted  for  writing  inflammatory  books 
with  comical  titles  ;  and  being  imprisoned  in  the  Tower 
when  the  election  was  over,  and  before  the  Coronation 
took  place,  he  petitioned  His  Majesty  for  release,  that 
he  might  enjoy  the  approaching  festival  in  liberty,  as 
well  as  with  loyalty.  This  bustling  Divine,  like  many 
others,  pleaded  the  sufferings  he  had  endured  for  his 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  151 

attachment  to  Monarchy ;  and  attempted  to  excuse 
certain  inconsiderate  expressions  employed  by  him  on 
matters  beyond  his  sphere,  on  the  ground  that  they 
were  not  written  with  an  evil  intention. 

The  citizens,  talking  over  the  great  folk-mote  of  the 
morning,  retired  to  their  wainscoted  parlours  in  the 
evening,  and  putting  pen  to  paper,  wrote  to  their 
friends  in  the  country.  Some  deplored  the  election  of 
fanatics.  Some  jubilantly  proclaimed  the  Liberal 
triumph.  What  they  said,  however,  mattered  little. 
The  letters  never  reached  their  destination.  They  were 
pilfered  at  the  post  office.  In  vain  people  in  the 
country  waited  for  the  arrival  of  the  post-boy  in  those 
windy  March  days  ;  in  vain  the  Londoners  expected 
answers  to  their  epistles.  Those  time-stained,  yellowish- 
looking  sheets,  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  and  of  varied 
and  often  puzzling  caligraphy,  are  still  safe  in  the  Public 
Record  Office.  The  object  of  the  interception  was  to 
find  out  if  there  were  anything .  treasonable  in  the 
correspondence ;  or  to  prevent  Liberal  citizens  from 
influencing  country  constituencies.  Whether,  if  the 
letters  had  been  delivered,  they  would  have  altered  the 
results  of  the  general  election,  may  be  doubted.  At  all 
events,  the  elections  were  in  favour  of  the  Royalists. 
Government  influence  was  employed.  Corporations 
returning  members  had  been  purged  of  disaffected 
elements  ;  and  no  doubt  manifold  tricks  were  played. 
Nor  can  we  believe  they  were  confined  to  one  side. 
But,  independently  of  unconstitutional  interference, 
there  were  causes  which  will  account  for  the  success  of 
the  Cavaliers.  Many  old  Presbyterian  and  Independent 
politicians  had  become  ineligible  through  political 
offences.  The  zeal  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  Episco- 
palian clergy  told  powerfully  in  favour  of  old  Royalists, 


152  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

but  great  in  many  boroughs  and  counties  was  the 
popularity  of  candidates  who  had  fought  at  Edgehill, 
at  Marston  Moor,  or  at  Naseby,  under  the  banner  of 
Charles  I. 

Of  the  members  returned  there  were  four  men  who 
in  the  Long  Parliament  had  appeared  as  leaders.  John 
Maynard,  who  was  a  manager  in  the  trial  of  Laud,  who 
had  taken  the  Covenant,  and  had  been  a  member  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  represented  a  Devonshire 
borough  ;  but  he  had  now  become  so  noted  for  loyalty, 
that,  in  consideration  of  it,  as  well  as  his  legal  eminence, 
Charles  IL  made  him  a  serjeant,  and  conferred  upon 
him  knighthood,  in  the  month  of  November,  1660. 
Several  notices  of  speeches  delivered  by  Maynard  may 
be  found  in  the  "Parliamentary  History;"  but,  except  as 
an  opponent  of  Popery,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
taken  any  important  part  in  ecclesiastical  questions. 
John  Glynne,  who,  when  Recorder  of  London,  had 
advocated  Presbyterianism,  now  sat  for  Caernarvon- 
shire ;  and,  like  his  friend  Maynard,  enjoyed  the  honour 
of  serjeantship,  and  was  knighted  for  his  loyalty  at  the 
Restoration.  There  remains  no  indication  of  his  having 
taken  any  part  in  the  debates  of  the  House,  from  which 
he  was  removed  by  death  in  1667.  William  Prynne, 
who  had  suffered  so  much  as  a  Puritan,  had  written  so 
much  as  a  Presbyterian,  and  had  spoken  so  much  as  a 
Royalist,  now  took  his  place  on  the  benches  of  St. 
Sephen's  as  a  member  for  Bath  ;  but  no  mention  is 
made  of  his  ever  speaking,  except  once,  when  he 
uttered  a  few  words  relative  to  the  impeachment  of 
Lord  Clarendon.*  Sir  Harbottle  Grimston,  another 
well-known  Presbyterian,  who  also  was  Speaker  of  the 
Convention,  again  appeared  as  a  member  of  the  House 
*  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  383. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  153 

of  Commons,  representing  the  town  of  Colchester.  But 
in  his  case,  as  in  the  others,  Presbyterianism  now  was 
absorbed  in  the  return  of  loyalty  ;  and  nothing  that  we 
can  find,  fell  from  his  lips  touching  Church  subjects, 
except  a  few  words  against  Roman  Catholicism.* 
These  men  failed  to  speak  on  behalf  of  religious  liberty 
after  the  Restoration.  Besides  these  four,  may  be 
mentioned  Colonel  Birch,  a  Lancashire  Presbyterian, 
who  having  in  the  Long  Parliament  and  in  Cromwell's 
Parliaments  represented  Leominster,  was  in  166 1  re- 
turned for  the  borough  of  Penryn,  and  this  gentleman 
frequently  rose  in  support  of  civil  and  spiritual  freedom, 
but  Hugh  Boscawen,  who  had  been  member  for  Corn- 
wall and  Truro,  under  the  Protectorate,  and  now  sat 
for  Tregony,  scarcely  ever  opened  his  lips.  The  same 
may  be  remarked  of  Griffith  Bodurda,  member  for 
Beaumaris.  Presbyterianism  or  Independency  in  par- 
ticular could  not  be  said  to  be  represented  in  the 
Commons  ;  nor  did  Puritanism  in  general  find  full  and 
decided  expression  within  walls  where  twenty  years 
before  it  had  been  so  triumphant. 

Parliament  assembled  on  the  8th  of  May.  The 
Upper  House  presented  more  of  its  ancient  appearance 
than  recently  it  had  done  ;  for  although  the  Bishops 
were  not  yet  restored,  more  than  a  hundred  Peers  took 
their  seats,  a  striking  contrast  to  the  opening  of  the 
Convention,  when  only  five  Earls,  one  Viscount,  and 
four  Barons  mustered  in  the  Chamber.  His  Majesty, 
crowned  and  wearing  his  regal  robes,  ascended  the 
throne,  attended  on  each  side  by  Officers  of  State, 
including  a  few  who  had  favoured  Presbyterianism. 
The  Commons  took  their  places  below  the  bar.  The 
King  kept  silence  on  Church  matters,  unless  he  may 
*  "Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  862. 


154  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

have  referred  to  the  Breda  Declaration,  when  saying 
that  he  valued  himself  much  upon  keeping  his  word, 
and  upon  making  good  whatever  he  had  promised  to 
his  subjects.  The  Lord  Chancellor,  after  an  allusion 
to  the  constitution  and  disorders  of  the  State,  its 
stomach  and  appetite,  its  humour  and  fevers,  indig- 
nantly inquired,  "  What  good  Christian  can  think  with- 
out horror  of  these  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  who  by 
their  function  should  be  the  messengers  of  peace,  and 
are  in  their  practice  the  only  trumpets  of  war,  and  in- 
cendiaries towards  rebellion  } "  Such  preaching  he 
pronounced  to  be  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  Sir 
Edward  Turner,  a  thorough  Royalist,  was  elected 
Speaker  ;  and,  when  presented  to  the  King,  he  delivered 
one  of  those  tiresome  speeches  which  were  so  character- 
istic of  the  age.*  The  House  ordered  that  the  Com- 
munion of  the  Lord's  Supper  should,  on  Sunday,  the 
26th  of  January,  be  celebrated  at  St.  Margaret's  Church, 
according  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England  ; 
and  that  no  one  who  did  not  partake  of  this  sacrament 
should  be  allowed  to  enter  the  House.f 

We  must  now  leave  the  transactions  of  Parliament 
for  a  while,  that  we  may  attend  to  the  proceedings  of 
two  ecclesiastical  bodies,  contemporaneously  engaged 
in  discussing  affairs  over  which  Parliament  exercised 
supreme  control.  The  Worcester  House  Declaration 
had  spoken  of  a  revision  of  the  Liturgy.  The  King 
said,  he  found  some  exceptions  made  against  several 
things  therein — and  would  appoint  an  equal  number  of 
learned  Divines  of  both  persuasions,  to  review  the  same  ; 

*  "  Lords'  Journals,"  1661,  May  8th  and  lotli. 

t  A  Diarist  states  that  Dr.  Gunning,  who  officiated,  refused 
the  bread  to  Mr.  Prynne,  because  he  did  not  kneel  ;  and  that 
Boscawen  took  it  standing.     (Lathbury's  "  Convocation,"  297.) 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  155 

and  to  make  such  alterations  as  should  be  thought 
necessary.  In  formal  agreement  with  this  promise,  a 
Royal  Commission  was  issued.  Bishops,  with  coad- 
jutors, were  chosen  to  represent  the  Episcopalians,  and 
leading  Divines,  also  with  coadjutors,  were  chosen  to 
represent  the  Presbyterians.*  The  Chancellor  arranged 
that  Dr.  Reynolds — already  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  he  having  accepted  that  see,  with  the  idea  that 
the  Declaration  would  be  carried  out,  but  who,  incon- 
sistent as  it  may  seem,  still  bore  the  name  of  a  Pres- 
byterian— and  Calamy,  who  remained  a  Presbyterian 
in  reality,  should  nominate  the  Commissioners  on  their 
side  of  the  question.  Baxter  expressed  a  wish  to  have 
his  name  omitted  ;  for  he  found  he  had  made  himself 
unacceptable  to  the  opposite  party,  but  he  observes, 
he  could  not  prevail  unless  he  had  "  peremptorily 
refused  it,"  words  which  do  not  indicate  any  earnestness 

*  The  Presbyterian  Divines  were  : — Edward  Reynolds,  Bishop 
of  Norwich  ;  Dr.  Tuckney,  Master  of  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge ;  Dr.  Conant,  Reg.  Prof.  Div.,  Oxford  ;  Dr.  Spurstow ; 
Dr.  Wallis,  Sav.  Prof.  Geom.,  Oxford  ;  Dr.  Manton  ;  Mr.  Calamy  ; 
Mr.  Baxter  ;  Mr.  Jackson  ;  Mr.  Case  ;  Mr.  Clark  ;  Mr.  New- 
comen.  Coadjutors  : — Dr.  Horton  ;  Dr.  Jacomb  ;  Dr.  Bates  ; 
Dr.  Cooper  ;  Dr.  Lightfoot  ;  Dr.  Collins  ;  Mr.  Woodbridge ;  Mr. 
Rawlinson  ;  Mr.  Drake. 

The  Episcopal  Divines  were  : — Accepted  Frewen,  Archbishop 
of  York  ;  Gilbert  Sheldon,  Bishop  of  London,  Master  of  the 
Savoy  ;  John  Cosin,  Bishop  of  Durham  ;  John  Warner,  Bishop 
of  Rochester  ;  Henry  King,  Bishop  of  Chichester  ;  Humphrey 
Henchman,  Bishop  of  Sarum  ;  George  Morley,  Bishop  of  Worce- 
ster ;  Robert  Sanderson,  Bishop  of  Lincoln  ;  Benjamin  Laney, 
Bishop  of  Peterborough  ;  Bryan  Walton,  Bishop  of  Chester  ; 
Richard  Sterne,  Bishop  of  Carlisle  ;  John  Gauden,  Bishop  of 
Exeter.  With  the  following  Coadjutors  : — Dr.  Earle,  Dean  of 
Westminster  ;  Dr.  Heylyn  ;  Dr.  Hacket ;  Dr.  Barwick  ;  Dr. 
Gunning  ;  Dr.  Pearson  ;  Dr.  Pierce  ;  Dr.  Sparrow ;  Mr.  Thorn- 
dike. 

No  distinction  is  made  between  the  two  parties  in  the  terms  of 
the  Commission. 


156  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

in  declining  office.  Indeed  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
that  Baxter  could  have  endured  to  hear  of  such  a 
debate  as  was  now  at  hand,  without  taking  a  leading 
part  in  it  himself.  Moreover,  he  had  so  far  recognized 
Episcopal  authority,  as  to  seek  from  Sheldon  a  license 
publicly  to  preach,  and  as  a  condition  of  obtaining  it, 
he  gave  a  written  promise  not  to  speak  against  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  or  the  ceremonies  established 
by  law,  a  circumstance  which  certainly  showed  his  dis- 
position to  concede  as  much  as  possible.* 

The  Royal  Commission  bore  date  the  25th  of 
March.f  It  gave  the  Commissioners  authority  to 
review  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  to  compare  it 
with  the  most  ancient  Liturgies,  to  take  into  considera- 
tion all  things  which  it  contained,  to  consult  respecting 
the  exceptions  against  it,  and  by  agreement  to  make 
such  necessary  alterations  as  should  afford  satisfaction 
to  tender  consciences,  and  restore  to  the  Church  unity 
and  peace ;  the  instrument  appointed  "  the  Master's 
lodgings  in  the  Savoy "  as  the  place  of  meeting. 
Sheldon  having  borne  off  from  all  competitors  the 
appointment  to  the  Mastership  of  that  Hospital,J  it 
was  under  his  roof  that  the  approaching  Ecclesiastical 
Debates  were  to  take  place ;  perhaps  convenience 
sought  by  the  Master  as  well  as  convenience  afforded 
by  the  hall  in  the  palace,  might  influence  the  selection  ; 
and  it  becomes  a  curious  coincidence  that  the  scene  of 


*  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  302-304. 
t  Ibid.,  305  ;  Kennet,  398  ;  "  Cardwell's  Documents." 
X  Two  applicants  are  mentioned  as  anxious  for  the  office — 
Dr.  Warmestry  and  Richard  Braham — the  latter  writes  to  John 
Nicholas  asking  his  "  influence  with  his  father  to  get  him 
recommended  as  an  additional  Commissioner  of  the  Excise, 
having  relinquished  the  idea  of  the  Mastership  of  the  Savoy  in 
favour  of  Dr.  Sheldon."    (  "  State  Papers,  Cal."  1660-61,  16,  113.) 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  157 

these  debates,  professedly  for  the  purpose  of  effecting 
union  between  Conformists  and  Nonconformists,  should 
be  a  building  under  the  control  of  a  High  Churchman, 
and  yet  one  which  had  witnessed  the  consultations  of 
Independents  ;  for  they  had  drawn  up  a  Confession 
of  Faith  and  Order  within  those  very  walls  about 
eighteen  months  before.  That  meeting  had  borne 
some  resemblance  to  the  Westminster  Assembly,  since 
the  Confession  adopted  by  it,  though  never  an  authori- 
tative standard,  remained  long  in  honour  amongst 
Congregationalists ;  but  the  Conference  which  now 
took  place  was  not  intended  to  settle  points  of  faith, 
nor  did  it  issue  in  any  practical  conclusion  whatever.* 

The  Commissioners  were  summoned  to  meet  upon 
the  15th  of  April ;  but  before  that  day  arrived,  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  another  kind  of  Ecclesiastical 
Assembly,  the  contemporary  existence  of  which  is  often 
overlooked,  although  it  be  of  the  utmost  importance 
for  the  understanding  of  the  one,  that  we  should 
carefully  consider  the  contemporary  existence  of  the 
other.  Hesitancy,  if  not  a  deeper  feeling,  appears  in 
reference  to  a  regular  Convocation  of  the  clergy  at  that 
time.  If  the  Breda  and  Worcester  House  Declarations 
had  meant  what  they  said,  an  assembly  gathered  on 
the  principle  of  former  Convocations  could  not  with 
the  least  propriety  be  held  at  this  juncture  :  however, 
now  that  the  old  constitution  of  national  government 
had  resumed  its  place,  some  High  Churchmen  inferred, 
and  earnestly  contended,  that  ancient  ecclesiastical  as 
well  as  civil  arrangements  had  become  virtually  re- 
established ;  and  therefore,  that  Convocation  ought  to 
be  summoned  at  the  opening  of  Parliament.  But  to 
summon   Convocation  would  be   to   nullify  the  Con- 

*  This  meeting  will  be  noticed  hereafter. 


158  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

ference.  Dr.  Peter  Heylyn,  the  admiring  biographer 
of  Archbishop  Laud,  was  aware  of  the  difficulty,  at 
this  crisis,  of  convoking  the  clergy  after  the  ancient 
manner  ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  March, 
1 66 1,  he  referred  to  it  as  raising  sad  thoughts  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  wished  for  the  peace  and  happiness 
of  the  English  Sion.*  The  matter  came  before  the 
Council  Board  at  Whitehall,  on  the  loth  of  April  ;  and 
it  was  then  ordered,  that  the  Lord  Chancellor  should 
direct  the  Clerk  of  the  Crown  to  draw  up  the  writs  for 
Convocation  in  the  usual  form.  This  occurred  more 
than  a  fortnight  after  the  date  of  the  Commission,  and 
five  days  before  the  Commissioners  were  to  meet. 
Clarendon  remarks  that  at  the  time  when  the  King 
"  issued  out  his  writs  for  convening  the  Parliament,  he 
had  likewise  sent  summons  to  the  Bishops,  for  the 
meeting  of  the  clergy  in  Convocation,  which  is  the  legal 
synod  in  England  ;  against  the  coining  together  zvhereof 
the  Liturgy  would  be  finished,  which  His  Majesty  in- 
tended to  send  thither  to  be  examined,  debated,  and 
confirmed.  And  then  he  hoped  to  provide,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Parliament,  such  a  settlement  in 
religion,  as  would  prevent  any  disorder  in  the  State 
upon  those  pretences."  f 

Not  to  dwell  upon  this  instance  of  carelessness  re- 
specting dates,  inasmuch  as  the  writ  for  calling  a 
Parliament  is  dated  the  9th  of  March,  and  the  summons 
for  a  Convocation  the  nth  of  April,  it  is  worth  asking, 
what  is  meant  by  the  Liturgy  being  finished  against 
the  coming  together  of  Convocation }  It  could  not 
mean  that  in  the  Conference  the  Liturgy  was  to  be 
finished  ;  for  that  would  be  contradicted  by  the  whole 
policy  of  the  Bishops.     Surely  it  must  mean  that  the 

*  Kennet,  389.  t  Clarendon,  1047. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  159 

King  and  his  Minister  intended  that  the  Liturgy 
should  be  finished  by  the  Bishops  themselves,  as  it 
will  afterwards  appear,  it  really  was  by  Cosin  and 
others  before  Convocation  met,  without  any  regard  to 
the  transactions  of  the  Conference ;  and  if  such  was 
the  case,  the  issue  of  the  Conference  is  seen  to  have 
been  determined  at  the  commencement. 

When  the  15th  of  April  arrived,  the  Commissioners 
came  together,  and  the  Presbyterians  must  have  been 
as  much  vexed  as  the  Anglicans  would  be  pleased, 
with  the  treatment  of  the  Worcester  House  Declaration 
by  the  Commons,  and  with  the  prospect  of  Convoca- 
tion meeting  at  the  same  time  as  the  Conference. 

All  London  was  astir  with  the  approaching  Corona- 
tion ;  and  the  Officers  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  Herald's 
College  had  just  been  busy  in  examining  claims  and 
searching  precedents  relative  to  the  solemnity.  In  the 
ceremonial,  Bishops  had  places  of  distinction  assigned 
to  them.  Sheldon,  Bishop  of  London,  was  to  assist 
Juxon,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  was  now  old 
and  full  of  years.  Cosin,  Bishop  of  Durham,  was  to 
support  the  King,  and  assist  him  in  certain  portions  of 
the  ceremony.  Warner,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  was  to 
deliver  the  petition,  praying  His  Majesty  to  preserve 
to  the  prelates  their  canonical  privileges.  King,  Bishop 
of  Chichester,  was  to  read  the  Epistle  before  the 
Communion.  Morley,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  was  to 
preach,  and  Gauden,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  to  carry  the 
patena.  Bishops,  besides  discharging  high  offices  in 
particular,  were  to  swell  the  grandeur  of  the  procession, 
and  to  kiss  the  King  before  any  Marquis  or  Duke  was 
allowed  the  privilege.  Besides,  Earle,  Dean  of  West- 
minster, had  to  assist  at  the  anointing,  to  put  the  coif, 
with  the  colobiwn  sindonis,  or  surplice,  upon  the  Royal 


l6o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

person,  Heylyn  had  to  carry  the  sceptre  with  the 
cross  ;  while  other  Doctors  of  Divinity  were  appointed 
to  bear  the  sceptre  with  the  dove,  the  orb  with  the 
cross,  King  Edward's  staff,  the  chahce,  the  spoon,  and 
the  ampulla.* 

The  ceremony,  according  to  immemorial  usage,  was 
to  be  an  Episcopalian  ceremony.  Of  course  no  part 
could  be  assigned  to  Presbyterians,  unless,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  Presbyterianism  clothed 
itself  in  prelatical  robes.  Presbyterians,  as  such,  had 
been  appointed  Chaplains  ;  but  they  were  passed  by  in 
these  gorgeous  ceremonies.  The  fact  is  significant, 
and  it  bore  upon  the  nature  and  issues  of  the  Con- 
ference. It  has  often  been  said,  that  the  Presbyterians 
were  in  the  saddle  at  the  time  of  the  Restoration  ;  it  is 
as  plain  that  the  Episcopalians  were  in  the  saddle  at 
the  time  of  the  Coronation.  A  meeting  at  the  Savoy, 
between  Divines  of  the  two  schools,  in  the  spring  of 
1660,  would  have  been  different  from  such  a  meeting 
in  the  spring  of  1661.  Something  at  least  like  equal 
terms  might  at  the  former  date  have  been  secured,  but 
it  is  plain  that  afterwards  the  men  of  Geneva  stood  no 
chance  with  those  of  Canterbury.  Episcopacy  and  the 
Liturgy  were  in  possession. 

Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that  the  hopelessness  of 
the  scheme  arose  entirely  from  superiority  on  one  side  : 
it  sprung  also  from  causes  on  the  other.  A  gulf  had 
yawned  between  the  parties  ever  since  the  opening  of 
the  Civil  Wars.  They  had  been  placed  in  mutual  an- 
tagonism through  the  changes  effected  by  the  Long 
Parliament.  Besides,  doctrinal  differences  between 
Anglicans  and  Puritans  sharply  defined,  and  resolutely 
maintained,  kept  them  asunder ;  and  their  opposite 
*  Kennet,  412,  et  seq. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  i6i 

modes  of  expressing  devotion,  the  love  of  litanies,  and 
collects  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  love  of  prayers 
vocally  offered,  and  running  into  great  lengths,  on  the 
other,  heightened  the  separating  barrier.  Results 
fulfilled  the  reasonable  anticipation  of  failure. 

What  in  those  days  remained  of  the  old  Savoy 
Palace,  one  of  the  three  most  sumptuous  edifices  * 
erected  by  the  most  penurious  of  monarchs,  presented 
a  fine  architectural  appearance  on  the  river  side  ;  within 
there  existed  a  spacious  hall,  with  a  ceiling  of  timber 
curiously  wrought,  "  having  knobs  in  due  places  hanging 
down,  and  images  of  angels  holding  before  their  breasts 
coats  of  arms."  Under  that  roof,  and  within  walls  of 
stone  and  brick,  "three  foot  broad  at  least," f  repre- 
sentative men,  some  of  them  after  twenty  years  of 
strife,  met  face  to  face.  Two  of  the  Divines,  Calamy, 
the  Presbyterian,  and  Racket,  the  Episcopalian,  had, 
in  1641,  under  the  presidency  of  Archbishop  Williams, 
taken  part  in  a  similar  conference  ;  several,  indeed,  on 
diff"erent  sides  now,  had,  in  the  Universities  and  else- 
where, been  friendly  or  civil  towards  each  other,  but 
memories  of  the  Deanery  of  Westminster  augured  little 
of  hope  for  the  Savoy  Palace,  and  the  influence  of 
early  social  intercourse  stood  little  chance  of  over- 
coming ecclesiastical  partisanship. 

Before  we  notice  the  papers  exchanged,  or  the  words 
spoken,  it  is  proper  to  look  at  the  notable  men  who 
appeared  at  this  meeting.  There  was  Sheldon  himself, 
a  chief  adviser,  yet  taking  little  share  in  the  viva  voce 
discussions,  a  man  full  of  worldly  policy,  but    agree- 

*  The  other  two,  built  by  Henry  VII.,  were  King's  College, 
Cambridge,  and  the  Chapel  which  bears  his  name  at  West- 
minster. 

t  Strype's  "Stow,"  II.  103. 

VOL.   III.  M 


i62  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

able  and  pleasant  in  private  intercourse.  There  was 
Morley,  a  leader  next  to  Sheldon,  genial  and  witty,  but 
extremely  passionate  and  full  of  obstinacy.  There  was 
Cosin,  bringing  with  him  a  high  reputation  for  learning 
and  devoutness,  blended  with  strong  Anglo-Catholic 
feeling.*  There  was  Gauden,  who  had  conformed  under 
the  Commonwealth,  and  was  still  inclined  to  modera- 
tion, yet  aiming  to  bring  all  ministers  within  the  ranks 
of  Episcopalianism.  There  was  Gunning,  an  unequalled 
textuary,  a  pre-eminent  controversialist,  a  public  dis- 
putant of  singular  fame,  fervent  in  spirit,  eager  in 
speech,  zealous  for  Arminianism  and  ritualistic  worship, 
and  vehement  in  his  advocacy  of  "high  imposing 
principles."  f  And  there  was  Pearson,  the  most  gifted, 
perhaps,  on  the  Episcopalian  side,  enriched  with  large 
and  varied  stores  of  divinity,  and  distinguished  by  a 
closeness  of  thought,  and  a  judicious  selection  of  proofs 
such  as  secure  eminence  to  an  advocate,  and  success  at 
the  bar.J  There  was  also  Reynolds,  a  Presbyterian 
Bishop,  marked  to  be  a  healing  mediator,  but  he 
brought  to  the  work  a  feeble  character,  and  had  lost 
moral  weight  by  accepting  a  mitre. 

The  Presbyterians  were  led  by  Baxter,  an  acute 
metaphysician,  a  keen  debater,  subtle  and  fertile  in 
mind,  honest  in  character,  and  open  as  the  day, 
possessing  in  abundance  the  silvern  gift  of  speech, 
rarely,  if  ever,  showing  the  golden  gift  of  silence.  He 
lacked  sobriety  of  judgment,  patience  under  contradic- 
tion, the  employment  of  means  for  attainable  results, 
and  a  common-sense  acquaintance  with  men  and  things, 

*  See  on  Cosin  and  the  other  Bishops,  what  has  been    said 
in  the  second  vohime  of  this  History, 
t  Baxter's  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  364. 
\  HallanVs  "  Literature  of  Europe,"  IV.  179. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  163 

such  as  are  essential  to  success  in  all  deliberations. 
Calamy  does  not  appear  as  a  speaker  in  the  Conference, 
though  he  played  an  active  part  in  Committees.  Proofs 
of  his  general  eminence  are  afforded  by  his  preaching 
before  Parliament  when  the  King  was  voted  home,  by 
his  being  one  of  the  deputation  sent  to  wait  on  His 
Majesty,  and  by  the  offer  made  to  him  of  a  Bishopric. 
Proofs  of  his  fitness  to  occupy  a  place  in  the  Com- 
mission are  supplied  by  his  reputation  for  learning, 
for  prudence,  for  dignity,  and  for  courtier-like  bearing. 
Moreover,  as  in  early  life  he  had  been  moderate  in  his 
views,  and  had,  therefore,  been  chosen  as  one  of  the 
Committee  in  1641,  so  at  the  Restoration  he  wished  for 
a  comprehensive  scheme,  and  would  have  accepted  the 
preferment  offered  him,  had  the  Worcester  Declaration 
become  constitutional  law.  Bates,  a  Presbyterian, 
renowned  for  candour,  is  particularly  commended  by 
Baxter  for  solidity,  judiciousness,  and  pertinence  in 
debate,  but  he  lacked  the  energy  of  the  Kidderminster 
incumbent.  Jacomb,  Newcomen,  and  Clark  were 
active  in  Committee.  Jacomb  is  described  as  a  man 
of  superior  education,  of  a  staid  mind,  of  temperate 
passions,  moderate  in  counsels,  and  not  vehement  and 
confident,  but  receptive  of  advice,  and  yielding  to 
reason.  Newcomen,  like  Calamy,  belonged  to  the  five 
Divines  who  wrote  "  Smectymnuus,"  a  circumstance  of 
unfavourable  omen  in  the  estimation  of  opponents. 
Clark,  pious,  charitable,  laborious,  and  fond  of  bio- 
graphy, is  still  well  known  for  his  "  Martyrology  "  and 
for  his  "  Lives."  * 

Frewen,  Archbishop  of  York,  opened  proceedings  by 
apologizing  for  his  ignorance  of  the  business,  and  b}' 

*  For  fuller  notices  of  the  Presbyterian  Divines  who  figured  at 
the  Savoy,  see  second  volume  of  this  History. 


1 64  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

stating  that  he  should  leave  all  in  the  hands  of  the 
Bishop  of  London.  That  prelate  proposed  at  once  that 
the  Presbyterians  should  reduce  their  objections  to 
writing,  to  which  they  replied  that  the  meeting  was 
intended  to  be  a  conference,  and  that  free  debate  would 
best  prepare  for  an  ultimate  agreement.  The  Bishop 
adhered  to  his  first  proposal,  and  Baxter  falling  in  with 
it,  prevailed  on  his  brethren  to  do  the  same. 

According  to  the  terms  of  the  Commission,  they  met 
together  to  "  advise  "  and  to  "  consult,"  and  the  pro- 
fessed character  and  object  of  the  Commission  implied 
that  there  was  to  be  friendly  conference  and  mutual 
concession.  But  the  Bishops  manifested  no  disposition 
to  concede  anything  ;  they  assumed  the  port  and  bear- 
ing of  persons  who  were  in  the  ascendant,  and  had  to 
do  with  troublesome  people,  who  were  asking  unreason- 
able favours.  They  had  made  up  their  minds  not  to 
speak  freely,  and  as  men  of  business  and  stern  conser- 
vators bent  upon  keeping  up  ancient  restrictions,  the 
course  they  pursued  could  be  plausibly  defended. 
Perhaps  it  would  have  mattered  little  in  the  end  if 
Baxter's  colleagues  had  persevered  in  their  objections  ; 
yet  his  falling  at  once  into  the  trap,  and  his  eagerly 
adopting  the  method  of  written  communications,  showed 
how  little  he  had  of  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent.  The 
Bishops  required  Presbyterian  exceptions  and  additions 
to  the  Prayer  Book  to  be  presented  at  once  ;  but 
Baxter  succeeded  so  far  as  to  obtain  permission  for 
bringing  in  exceptions  at  one  time,  and  additions  at 
another ;  it  was  arranged  that  his  brethren  should 
prepare  the  former,  and  that  he  should  prepare  the 
latter.  The  two  parties  separated,  the  Presbyters  to 
prepare  for  the  future  Conference,  the  Prelates  for  the 
Coronation. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  165 

The  Coronation  was  very  magnificent.  Clarendon 
informs  us : — "  The  King  went  early  in  the  morning  to 
the  Tower  of  London,  in  his  coach,  most  of  the  Lords 
being  there  before  ;  and  about  ten  of  the  clock  they  set 
forward  towards  Whitehall,  ranged  in  that  order  as  the 
Heralds  had  appointed  ;  those  of  the  Long  Robe,  the 
King's  Council-at-law,  the  Masters  of  the  Chancery  and 
Judges  going  first  ;  and  so  the  Lords  in  their  order, 
very  splendidly  habited,  on  rich  footcloths  ;  the  number 
of  their  footmen  being  limited,  to  the  Dukes  ten,  to 
the  Earls  eight,  and  to  the  Viscounts  six,  and  the 
Barons  four,  all  richly  clad,  as  their  other  servants 
were.  The  whole  show  was  the  most  glorious  in  the 
order  and  expense  that  had  been  ever  seen  in  England  ; 
they  who  rode  first  being  in  Fleet  Street  when  the 
King  issued  out  of  the  Tower,  as  was  known  by  the 
discharge  of  the  ordnance  ;  and  it  was  near  three  of 
the  clock  in  the  afternoon  when  the  King  alighted  at 
Whitehall.  The  next  morning  the  King  rode  in  the 
same  state  in  his  robes,  and  with  his  crown  on  his  head, 
and  all  the  Lords  in  their  robes,  to  Westminster  Hall, 
where  all  the  ensigns  for  the  Coronation  were  delivered 
to  those  who  were  appointed  to  carry  them,  the  Earl 
of  Northumberland  being  made  High  Constable,  and 
the  Earl  of  Sufi"olk  Earl  Marshal  for  the  day ;  and  then 
all  the  Lords  in  their  order,  and  the  King  himself 
walked  on  foot  upon  blue  cloth  from  Westminster  Hall 
to  the  Abbey  Church,  where,  after  a  sermon  preached 
by  Dr.  Morley  (then  Bishop  of  Worcester)  in  Henry 
VH.'s  Chapel,  the  King  was  sworn,  crowned,  and 
anointed  by  Dr.  Juxon,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
with  all  the  solemnity  that  in  those  cases  had  been  used. 
All  which  being  done,  the  King  returned  in  the  same 
manner  on  foot  to  Westminster  Hall,  which  was  adorned 


i66  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

with  rich  hangings  and  statues  ;  and  there  the  King 
dined,  and  the  Lords  on  either  side,  at  tables  provided 
for  them :  and  all  other  ceremonies  were  performed 
with  great  order  and  magnificence."*  The  Coronation 
produced  immense  popular  excitement.  Everything 
gave  way  to  it.  Royal  arches  were  erected  in  the  City 
of  such  dimensions  as  to  overtop  the  houses  by  one 
half,  some  of  these  decorations  being  twelve  stories 
high.  One  in  Fleet  Street  represented  the  Royal  Oak, 
a  second  in  Cheapside  took  the  form  of  a  Temple, 
and  a  third  at  Leadenhall  represented  what  occurred 
at  Boscobel. 

In  the  beginning  of  May  elections  occurred  for 
members  of  Convocation,  and  here  the  two  theories 
already  noticed,  regarding  the  Church  of  England  at 
that  juncture,  came  into  collision.  Presbyterians  main- 
tained that  the  existing  establishment  was  the  Church 
of  England,  that  they  were  legally  members  of  it,  that 
they  held  their  incumbencies  by  a  claim  as  valid  as  that 
of  their  brethren.  A  new  Act  of  Uniformity  had  not 
yet  been  passed,  therefore  no  flaw  existed  in  their  title 
to  be  considered  as  members  of  the  English  clergy. 
But  the  High  Church  party  fell  back  upon  the  ground 
that  the  Church  of  England  was  an  Episcopal  Church. 
As  always,  they  could  plead  laws  as  good  arguments 
when  in  their  favour  ;  as  always,  they  could  set  aside 
laws  when  against  them.  Even  allowing  that  the 
Church  of  England  might  be  exclusively  an  Episcopal 
Church  de  jure,  it  was  not  so  at  that  time,  de  lege,  or 
de  facto.  But  the  Episcopalian  party  managed  to  get 
power  into  their  hands,  and  to  exercise  it  ;  Presby- 
terians accordingly  were  pronounced  unfit  for  election. 

There  were  Presbyterians  who  disapproved  of  the 
*  Clarendon's  "  Continuation,"  1048. 


1661.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  167 

constitution  of  the  Convocation  ;  Baxter,  Bates,  and 
Jacomb  distinctly  said  that  not  only  n:iany  hundreds  of 
their  brethren  were  displaced  or  removed  before  the 
meeting  of  that  body,  and  others  denied  their  votes, 
because  they  were  not  ordained  by  Diocesans,  but  that 
there  were  others  who,  disapproving  of  the  way  in  which 
Convocation  was  constituted,  would  not  meddle  in  the 
choice  of  its  members, — whether  such  persons  would 
feel  themselves  bound  by  its  determination  it  was  im- 
possible to  predict.* 

Upon  the  2nd  of  May  the  election  of  London 
members  for  the  Lower  House  took  place  in  the 
famous  Christ  Church.  The  metropolitan  ministers,  who 
were  not  yet  ejected,  proved  a  majority  against  the 
diocesan  party,  and  when  Baxter  expressed  his  inten- 
tion of  being  present,  they  sent  to  their  busy  friend  not 
to  come,  and  also  begged  Calamy  to  absent  himself; 
the  object  being  to  secure  the  election  of  these  two 
Presbyters,  who  were  accordingly  chosen  by  a  majority 
of  three.  The  Bishop  of  London,  however,  as  Baxter 
remarks,  "  having  the  power  of  choosing  two  out  of 
four,  or  four  out  of  six,  that  are  chosen  by  the  ministers 
in  a  certain  circuit,  did  give  us  the  great  use  of  being 
both  left  out,  and  so  we  were  excused,  and  the  City 
of  London  had  no  clerk  in  the  Convocation,"!  The 
Proctors  of  Convocation  for  the  diocese  of  London  are 
elected  two  for  each  Archdeaconry,  the  Bishop  choos- 
ing two  out  of  the  whole  number,  at  that  time  ten. 
Baxter,  speaking  generally  of  the  Convocation,  states 
that  ministers  who  had  not  received  Episcopal  ordi- 
nation, "  were  in  many  counties  denied  any  voice  in  the 
election  of  Clerks  for  the  Convocation.  By  which 
means,  and  by  the  scruples  of  abundance  of  ministers, 
*  Baxter,  II.  342.  t  Ibid.  II.  333. 


1 68  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

who  thought  it  unlawful  to  have  anything  to  do  in  the 
choosing  of  such  a  kind  of  assembly,  the  diocesan  party 
wholly  carried  it  in  the  choice."  Burnet,*  of  course 
dependent  on  reports,  has  informed  us  :  "  Such  care  was 
taken  in  the  choice  and  returns  of  the  members  of  the 
Convocation,  that  everything  went  among  them  as  was 
directed  by  Sheldon  and  Morley."  And  the  author  of 
the  "  Conformists'  Plea,"t  perhaps  following  Baxter, 
observes,  that  men  were  got  in  and  kept  out  by  undue 
proceedings  ;  and  "  that  protestations  were  made 
against  all  Incumbents  not  ordained  by  Bishops." 
Sheldon  naturally  preferred  men  of  his  own  way  of 
thinking,  and  selected  out  of  the  names  presented  to 
him,  those  of  Haywood  and  Thorndike.  Hence  it 
came  to  pass  that  the  Presbyterian  part  of  the  City 
clergy  had  no  one  to  represent  them  in  Convocation  ; 
and  the  passing  over  by  Sheldon  of  the  two  Presby- 
terian Divines,  although  not  surprising,  should  be  borne 
in  mind,  in  connection  with  the  meeting  held  at  the 
Savoy  two  days  afterwards. 

Upon  the  4th  of  May  exceptions  were  presented. 
The  principal  persons  employed  in  drawing  them  up 
were  Calamy,  Newcomen,  Bates,  Clark,  Wallis,  and 
Jacomb,  and,  which  will  surprise  many  readers,  Dr. 
Reynolds ;  so  that  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  must  be 
regarded  as  sharing  in  the  responsibility  of  preparing 
objections  to  the  Prayer  Book.f  Baxter,  though  not  at 
first  assisting  in  this  division  of  labour,  afterwards 
helped  in  the  work.  His  objections  were  more  minute 
than  his   brethren  approved,  but  he  wished  them    to 

*  "  Hist,  of  his  own  Time,"  I.  184.  \  Page  35. 

X  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  307.  Baxter  is  my  main  authority  for 
the  history  of  the  Conference,  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  have 
no  other  full  account. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  169 

understand  he  did  not,  like  some,  charge  the  Common 
Prayer  with  idolatry  or  false  worship,  he  only  took  its 
faults  to  be  "  disorder  and  defectiveness  ; "  this,  he 
thought,  was  the  mind  of  all  the  Presbyterian  Commis- 
sioners except  one.  They  pleaded  in  their  paper  that 
as  the  first  Reformers  composed  the  Liturgy  with  a 
view  to  win  over  Papists,  the  Liturgy  ought  now  to  be 
revised  so  as  to  gain  upon  the  judgments  and  affections 
of  all  Protestants.  They  suggested  that  repetitions, 
responses,  and  an  alternate  reading  of  psalms  and 
hymns,  which  "  cause  a  confused  murmur  in  the  con- 
gregation," should  be  omitted  ;  that  the  Litany,  a  great 
part  of  which  was  uttered  only  by  the  people,  should 
be  formed  into  one  prayer,  to  be  offered  by  the 
minister,  who  according  to  Scripture  is  the  mouth  of 
the  people  to  God, — a  very  remarkable  objection,  it  may 
be  noticed  by  the  way,  coming  as  it  did  from  men  who 
professed  to  hold  unpriestly  views  of  worship.  They 
further  requested  that  neither  Lent  nor  saints'  days 
should  be  any  longer  observed  ;  that  free  prayer  should 
be  allowed ;  that  it  should  be  permissible  for  the 
minister  to  omit  part  of  the  Liturgy  as  occasion  might 
require  ;  that  King  James'  translation  should  alone  be 
used  at  Church  ;  that  only  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment might  be  read  in  the  daily  lessons  ;  that  no  part 
of  the  Communion  Service  should  take  place  at  the 
communion  table,  except  at  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper ;  that  the  word  "  minister "  should  be 
employed  instead  of  "  priest,"  and  the  "  Lord's  Day  " 
instead  of  "  Sunday  ; "  that  the  version  of  the  psalter 
should  be  amended  ;  that  obsolete  words  should  be 
altered  into  others  generally  received  ;  and  that  phrases 
presuming  the  congregation  to  be  regenerated  and  in  a 
state  of  crrace  should  be  revised.    These  Commissioners 


I70  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

further  said,  that  the  Liturgy  was  defective  in  praise 
and  thanksgiving  ;  that  the  confession  and  catechism 
were  imperfect;  and  that  the  surplice,  the  signing  of 
the  cross,  and  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Supper,  were 
unwarrantable.  The  objectors  took  special  exception 
to  certain  expressions  in  the  daily  service,  and  to 
the  rubrics.  But  their  objections  related  mainly  to  the 
forms  for  the  ordinance  of  baptism  ;  the  celebration  of 
matrimony  ;  the  visitation  of  the  sick  ;  and  the  burial 
of  the  dead.  Parallels  may  be  noticed  between  the 
exceptions  taken  on  this  occasion,  and  those  taken  in 
William's  Committee  of  1641.*  The  Presbyterians 
requested  that  instead  of  the  words  in  the  prayer 
before  baptism,  "  May  receive  remission  of  sins  by 
spiritual  regeneration,"  the  form  might  run  thus  : 
"Maybe  regenerated  and  receive  the  remission  of  sins." 
In  reference  to  the  words  afterwards,  "  That  it  hath 
pleased  Thee  to  regenerate  this  infant  by  Thy  Holy 
Spirit,"  it  is  remarkable  that  the  objection  is  couched  in 
cautious  terms.  "We  cannot  in  faith  say  that  every 
child  that  is  baptized  is  '  regenerated  by  God's  Holy 
Spirit,'  at  least,  it  is  a  disputable  point,  and  therefore 
we  desire  it  may  be  otherwise  expressed."  Confirma- 
tion is  not  condemned,  but  it  is  urged,  that  for  children 
to  repeat  mcmoriter  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  to  answer 
some  questions  of  the  Catechism,  is  not  a  sufficient  pre- 
paration for  the  rite  ;  and  that  it  ought,  according  to 
His  Majesty's  declaration,  to  be  "  solemnly  performed 
by  the  information,  and  with  the  consent  of  the 
minister  of  the  place."  In  relation  to  the  words  "  who 
hast  vouchsafed  to  regenerate  these  Thy  servants  by 

*  This  resemblance  is  adverted  to  in  the  "  Conformists'  Plea 
for  Nonconformity,"  22.     (See  first  vohime  of  this  History.) 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  171 

water  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  hast  given  unto  them 
the  forgiveness  of  all  their  sins,"  the  objectors  remark, 
"This  supposeth  that  all  the  children  who  are  brought 
to  be  confirmed  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  the  for- 
giveness of  all  their  sins  ;  whereas  a  great  number  of 
children  at  that  age,  having  committed  many  sins  since 
their  baptism,  do  show  no  evidence  of  serious  repent- 
ance, or  of  any  special  saving  grace  ;  and  therefore  this 
confirmation  (if  administered  to  such)  would  be  a 
perilous  and  gross  abuse."*  It  should  be  added,  that 
the  Presbyterians  disapproved  of  confirmation  being 
made  necessary  for  preparing  communicants.  With 
regard  to  the  solemnization  of  matrimony,  they  objected 
to  the  use  of  the  ring,  and  of  the  word  "  worship,"  and 
to  the  rubric  which  enjoins  receiving  the  communion  ; 
and  with  respect  to  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  the  same 
persons  wished  that  a  form  of  absolution  might  be 
omitted  at  the  minister's  option,  or  that  if  used,  it  might 
be  framed  on  a  declarative  and  conditional  form.  The 
exceptions  taken  to  the  burial  service  were  the  same  as 
those  which  have  been  current  ever  since. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  four  days  after  the  Presbyterians 
had  put  in  their  exceptions.  Convocation  met  for  the 
first  time  since  the  year  1640;!  the  Northern  Synod 
assembling  at  York,  the  Southern  at  London.  Sheldon 
— with  other  Bishops  of  the  province  of  Canterbury, 
together  with  Deans,  Archdeacons,  and  Priests,  also 
the  Dean  of  the  Arches,  with  Advocates  and  Proctors, 
— repaired  to  the  house  of  Dr.  Barwick,  a  physician, 
in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard.  In  that  house,  during  the 
Civil  Wars,  he  had  entertained  his  brother  John,  after- 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  321  ;  Cardwell's  "  Conf.,"  303  ; 
"  Documents  relating  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity." 
t  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  334. 


172  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

wards  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and  allowed  him  the  use 
of  an  oratory — some  Gothic  chamber,  perhaps,  with 
quaint  oriel,  destroyed  in  the  London  fire.  Arrayed 
in  their  vestments,  the  Bishops  and  clergy  entered  in 
procession  through  the  "  little  south  gate,"  into  the 
ancient  Gothic  edifice,  for  the  restoring  of  which  a  deep 
and  wide-spread  zeal  had  begun  to  show  itself — the 
Cathedral  being,  it  is  said,  "  a  princely  ornament  of  the 
Royal  city,"  where  was  a  confluence  of  foreign  princes' 
ambassadors,  the  structure  being  "injured  by  the 
iniquity  of  the  late  times  "  and  its  repair  being  neces- 
sary to  prevent  the  dishonour  of  its  neglect  falling 
upon  the  whole  city.*  There,  the  Dean,  Residen- 
tiaries,  and  the  rest  of  the  Canons,  were  waiting  to 
receive  the  procession  with  due  ceremony,  and  to 
conduct  its  members  into  the  ancient  choir.  It  was 
a  jubilant  hour  for  the  Episcopal  Church,  for  it 
betokened  a  resurrection  after  years  of  death-like 
silence,  imprisonment,  and  humiliation  ;  and  no  doubt, 
in  many  a  bosom,  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  adora- 
tion, mingled  with  feelings  of  excusable  pride,  as  the 
choir  sang  the  Te  Deum  in  English  ;  and  Dr.  Thomas 
Pearce  preached  a  sermon  in  Latin  from  Acts  xv.  28, 
"  For  it  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us,  to 
lay  upon  you  no  greater  burden  than  these  necessary 
things."  Sermon  ended,  and  an  anthem  sung,  Sheldon, 
who  acted  as  President,  in  consequence  of  the  advanced 
age  and  infirmities  of  Juxon,  with  the  rest  of  the  clergy, 
went  into  a  Chapter  House  provided  for  the  occasion, 
"  the  goodly  old  house  being,  by  the  impiety  of  Oliver 
Cromwell's  Horse  Guards,  rendered  unfit  for  use." 
The  King's  Writ  and  the  Archbishop's  Commission  to 
the  Bishop  were  formally  presented  and  read ;  after 
*  "  State  Papers,  Cal.  Dom.,"  1661,  October  26. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  173 

which  the  latter,  "  in  excellent  Latin,"  addressed  the 
Lower  House,  bidding  them  go  and  choose  their  Pro- 
locutor. 

On  the  Thursday  following.  May  the  i6th,  Dr.  John 
Pearson,  Archdeacon  of  Surrey,  presented  Dr.  Henry 
Feme,  Dean  of  Ely,  as  the  Prolocutor  chosen  by  the 
Lower  House;  and  "three  elegant  Latin  speeches  were 
made  :  one  by  the  presenter,  another  by  the  Prolocutor, 
and  a  third  by  his  Lordship  the  Bishop  of  London,  in 
approbation  of  their  election."*  This  ceremony  took 
place  in  Henry  VH.'s  Chapel,  Westminster,  whither, 
from  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  Convocation  had  adjourned, 
as  to  the  place  of  meeting  used  by  the  representatives 
of  the  clergy  before  the  Civil  Wars  ;  and  that  Chapel 
many  of  those  who  now  ascended  the  stone  steps  at 
the  back  of  the  Abbey  choir  would  consider  to  have 
suffered  almost  as  much  desecration  from  the  Presby- 
terian Assembly  of  Divines,  as  other  parts  of  the  sacred 
edifice  had  done  from  the  depredations  of  the  soldiery. 
Convocation  sat,  probably,  "  in  one  of  the  inferior 
chapels."t  No  one  like  Robert  Baillie,  who  so  minutely 
describes  the  Westminster  Assembly,  has  bequeathed 
us  a  picture  of  this  Episcopalian  Synod  twenty  years 
afterwards  ;  but  anybody  who  has  witnessed  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Lower  House,  the  Deans  in  their  scarlet 
robes  as  Doctors,  and  other  dignitaries  in  academic 
costumes,  with  square  caps  in  their  hands,  can  picture 
what  a  contrast,  in  these  respects,  the  clergy  convened 
in  1661,  in  a  side  Chapel  of  the  Abbey,  must  have 
presented  to  the  ministers,  who  assembled  in  1643, 
within  the  Jerusalem  Chamber.  Nor  can  I  find  any 
report    of    the    Debate,    like    that    preserved    in    the 

*  Kennet,  434. 

t  Stanley's  "  Memorials  of  Westminster,"  464. 


174  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V.' 

"  Diary  "  of  Lightfoot ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  usual  characteristics  of  ecclesiastical  councils  and 
conferences  might  be  found  on  the  occasion ;  that  there 
was  much  of  learning,  of  eloquence,  and  of  hair-splitting, 
that  some  speeches  were  logical,  and  others  very 
illogical,  that  the  debates  were  sometimes  wearisome, 
and  sometimes  lively,  and  that,  occasionally,  irregulari- 
ties of  discussion  called  for  the  interference  of  the  Pro- 
locutor. 

An  early  act  of  Convocation,  indeed  one  on  the  very 
day  of  meeting,  was  to  deliberate  respecting  forms  of 
prayer  for  the  two  anniversaries  so  intimately  connected 
with  the  Royal  family,  the  anniversary  of  Charles  II.'s 
birth,  and  return  ;  and  the  anniversary  of  his  father's 
death.  The  Bishop  of  Ely,  one  of  a  Committee  ap- 
pointed for  the  purpose,  presented  the  first  of  these  to 
the  Upper  House  on  the  i8th,  and  the  form  was  con- 
firmed and  issued  by  the  King  in  Council  on  the  22nd.* 
On  the  1 8th  also,  the  Bishop  of  London  recommended 
that  a  form  should  be  prepared  for  the  baptism  of 
adults,  it  being  alleged  that  many  people,  owing  to  the 
diffusion  of  Anabaptist  opinions,  had  not  been  baptized 
in  their  childhood.  That  duty  was  entrusted,  like  the 
other,  to  four  Bishops  and  eight  clergymen,  and  the 
result  appeared  and  received  approval  on  the  31st.  A 
Committee  of  Prelates  and  Presbyters  undertook  to 
frame  a  service  for  Charles'  martyrdom.  It  is  a  curious 
fact,  that  there  were  two  offices  for  the  30th  of  January, 
drawn  up  in  the  year  1661,  in  one  of  which,  referring  to 
Charles  and  other  martyrs,  there  occurred  the  words, 
"  That  we  may  be  made  worthy  to  receive  benefit  by 
their  prayers,  which  they,  in  communion  with  the 
Church  Catholic,  offer  up  unto  Thee  for  that  part  of  it 

*  Kennet,  450. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  175 

here  militant."  Such  a  recognition  of  the  intercession  of 
saints  in  Heaven,  indicating  a  strong  Romanist  ten- 
dency, has  been  made  a  ground  of  reproach  by  Non- 
conformist opponents ;  on  the  other  hand,  Episcopahans 
have  denied  the  existence  of  the  words  in  any  collect 
prepared  for  the  occasion.  The  contradiction  is  just, 
so  far  as  the  form  adopted  by  Convocation  is  con- 
cerned ;  but  there  was  an  earlier  one,  laid  aside  on 
account  of  its  containing  the  clause  in  question.*  The 
form  in  the  Prayer  Book  of  1662  differed  from  both  the 
forms  which  made  their  appearance  in  1661. 

Upon  the  31st  of  May,  Dr.  Pory  introduced  a  prayer 
for  the  Parliament,  which  was  not  an  entirely  new 
composition,  inasmuch  as  one  including  the  expression, 
"  our  religious  and  gracious  King,"  had  been  inserted 
in  the  Prayer  Book  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.f  It 
appeared,  for  the  first  time,  in  its  present  shape,  for  use 
at  a  general  fast,  held  on  the  12th  of  June,  1661, 
special  mention  of  it  being  made  on  the  title  page  ; 
from  which  form  of  service  it  was  transferred  to  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.     For  the  same  fast  a  general 

*  Lathbury's  "  Convocation,"  306  ;  Cardwell's  "  Synodalia," 
April  26th ;  Robinson's  "  Review  of  Liturgies  ;  "  Kennet's  "  Regis- 
ter," 36S-370.  "  King  Charles' Martyrdom"  was  introduced  into 
the  Calendar  30th  January  : — and  it  appears,  there  are  six  churches 
in  England,  named  in  his  honour.  They  are  in  Falmouth,  Tun- 
bridge  Wells,  Peak  Forest,  Wem,  and  Plymouth  ;  in  the  last 
town  there  are  two.  ("  Interleaved  Prayer  Book,"  by  Campion 
and  Beamont.) 

t  D'Oyley  in  his  "  Life  of  Sancroft "  (I.  114)  says,  in  1628; 
Procter  (262)  says,  in  1625  (in  an  "Order  of  Fasting,")  and 
again,  in  1628:  Palmer  remarks — that  "  the  appellation  of  'most 
religious  and  gracious  King,'  corresponds  with  those  high  titles  of 
respect  and  veneration  which  the  primitive  Church  gave  to  the 
Christian  emperors  and  kings  ;  thus,  in  the  Liturgy  of  Basil,  it  is 
said,  "  Mi/r)(707}Ti  Kupie  Tu>v  ivaefit<na.Twv  koX  iriaTOTo-roiv  T)fj.a)v  fiaaiKiwv." 
("Origines  Lit.,"  L  336.) 


176  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

form,  suited  for  such  an  occasion,  was  ordered  on  the 
7th  of  June,  to  be  prepared  by  a  Committee  ;  also,  a 
suppHcation  for  fair  weather  was  recommended  for 
consideration.  Upon  the  i8th  of  June,  the  King  issued 
his  letters  patent,  authorizing  Convocation  to  make 
canons  and  constitutions ;  in  which  letters  occur  a 
formula,  to  the  effect  that  the  clergy  had  always 
promised,  "  in  vcrbo  sacerdotii"  that  they  would  never 
promulge,  or  execute  any  new  ordinances  without  legal 
license  :  *  accordingly  the  Acts  of  Convocation,  on  the 
following  day,  notice  the  receiving  of  this  Royal  licence, 
and  record  the  appointment  of  certain  Bishops  and 
Presbyters  as  a  Committee  for  considering  the  business 
to  which  it  relates,  the  Committee  being  appointed  to 
meet  at  the  Savoy  Palace.t  Upon  the  17th  of  July 
the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  presented  a  draft  of  canons 
which  he  had  prepared,  and  which  were  again  referred 
to  him  for  further  consideration.  On  the  19th  and 
22nd  the  canons  still  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
Upper  House.  On  the  27th  a  benevolence  was 
voted  to  His  Majesty  ;  on  the  31st  Convocation  ad- 
journed.l 

Thus  far,  I  have  ventured  to  place  the  contemporary 
proceedings  of  the  Savoy  Conference,  and  those  of 
Convocation,  in  parallel  lines  ;  there  is  an  advantage  in 
doing  so.  We  see  how  additions  to  the  Prayer  Book, 
made  at  the  very  time  when  the  Commissioners  were 
engaged  in  discussions  upon  its  existing  contents, 
would  be  vexatious  to  the  Puritans  :  we  also  notice 
the  peculiar  position  of  Reynolds,  who  appeared  at  the 
Savoy  as  a  Presbyterian,  and  in  Convocation  as  a 
Prelate,  in  the  one  character  objecting  to  the  Prayer 

*  Cardwell's  "  Synodalia,"  687.  t  Ibid.,  645. 

%  Ibid.,  649-651. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  177 

Book,  in  the  other,  adding  to  it  new  forms  ;  and  we 
discover  that  the  Houses  of  Convocation  refrained, 
whilst  the  Commission  lasted,  from  doing  more  than  to 
supply  certain  additional  prayers,  deferring  the  business 
of  revision  until  the  Conference  had  broken  up. 

We  have  seen  the  Presbyterians  at  the  Conference 
putting  in  their  exceptions  ;  we  now  turn  to  the 
answers  of  the  Bishops.  They  were  written  in  an 
uncourteous,  and  captious  spirit,  not  indicating  the 
slightest  disposition  to  conciliate,  but  foreclosing  the 
possibility  of  removing  objections  :  for  they  said,  the 
alteration  asked  would  be  a  virtual  confession  that 
the  Liturgy  is  an  intolerable  burden  to  tender  con- 
sciences, a  direct  cause  of  schism  and  a  superstitious 
usage,  that  it  would  justify  past  Nonconformity,  and  con- 
demn the  conduct  of  all  Conformists.  The  document 
presents  an  angry  defence  of  Church  formulas  ;  and, 
whilst  there  is  much  in  the  reasoning  which  commends 
itself  to  admirers  of  the  Liturgy,  the  temper  betrayed  is 
of  a  kind  which  many  of  them  will  condemn.* 

The  discussion  upon  baptism  alone  needs  particular 
attention.  It  is  affirmed  that  the  form  in  the  Prayer 
Book  is  "  most  proper ;  for  baptism  is  our  spiritual 
regeneration."  That  answer  indicates  that  the  Episco- 
palians in  the  Conference  took  the  words  in  the  Prayer 
Book  to  express  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration. 
"  Seeing,"  say  they,  "  that  God's  sacraments  have  their 
effects  where  the  receiver  doth  not  ' ponere  obicein  '  put 
any  bar  against  them  (which  children  cannot  do),  we 
may  say  in  faith,  of  every  child  that  is  baptized,  that  it 
is  regenerated  by  God's  Holy  Spirit ;  and  the  denial  of 
it  tends  to  Anabaptism,  and  the  contempt  of  this  holy 

*  The  paper  is  not  given  by  Baxter  ;  it  is  printed  in  Cardwell's 
"  Conferences,"  335-363. 

VOL.    III.  N 


178  RELIGION  m  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

sacrament  as  nothing  worthy,  nor  material,  whether  it 
be  administered  to  children  or  no."  * 

It  had  been  arranged,  that  whilst  the  rest  of  the 
Presbyterian  brethren  employed  themselves  in  drawing 
up  exceptions  against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
Baxter  should  prepare  additions.  In  one  fortnight  he 
accomplished  his  task,  and  presented  his  Reformed 
Liturgy.  A  Reformed  Liturgy,  differing  from  that  of 
the  Church  of  England,  had,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
been  published  in  Holland  ;  but  it  amounts  to  no  more 
than  a  compilation  from  Calvin's  Genevan  Service 
Book.  Baxter  determined  that  his  should  be  original, 
and,  accordingly,  setting  to  work  with  his  Bible  and 
his  Concordance,  he  drew  up  a  new  collection  of  devo- 
tional offices.  They  include  orders  of  service  for  the 
Lord's  Day,  and  for  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  and  Baptism ;  a  discourse  upon  catechizing, 
preparatory  to  communion ;  a  form  to  be  used  in 
marriage  ;  directions  for  visitation  of  the  sick,  and  the 
burial  of  the  dead  ;  prayers  and  thanksgiving  for  extra- 
ordinary occasions,  and  for  particular  persons  ;  and  a 
discourse  on  pastoral  discipline,  with  forms  of  public 
confession,  absolution,  and  exclusion  from  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Church.  He  also  prepared  an  Appendix, 
containing  a  larger  litany,  or  general  prayer,  and  a  long 
ascription  of  praise  for  our  redemption.! 

The  author  tells  us  that  he  compared  what  he  did 
with  the  Assembly's  Directory,  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  Hammond  L'Estrange  ;  but  he  seems  to 
have  borrowed  little  or  nothing  from  these  sources, 
beyond  introducing  or  allowing  the  use  of  the  creeds, 

*  The  concessions  which  were  made  in  reference  to  the  Prayer 
Book  will  be  noticed  in  the  Appendix, 
t  The  Liturgy  is  in  Baxter's  "  Works,"  Vol.  XV. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  179 

sometimes  also  the  use  of  the  Athanasian  Creed,  the 
Te  Deum,  and  the  daily  psalms.  Modes  of  expression 
employed  by  Baxter  are  not  founded  upon  the  study 
of  former  liturgies,  and  are  remarkably  unlike  those  of 
the  ancient  Communions.  They  are  carefully  drawn 
from  the  Bible,  and  the  margin  of  his  service  book  is 
studded  with  innumerable  references  to  Scripture.  No 
one  who  reads  the  work,  especially  considering  the 
short  time  in  which  it  was  executed,  but  must  acknow- 
ledge it  to  be  a  very  extraordinary  performance  ;  and 
even  Dr.  Johnson  said  of  the  office  for  the  communion, 
"  that  it  was  one  of  the  first  compositions  of  the  ritual 
kind  he  had  ever  seen."  *  The  comprehension  and 
fervour  of  all  the  prayers  must  excite  admiration  ;  but 
many  of  them  labour  under  the  Puritan  disadvantage  of 
being  too  long,  and  they  are  frequently  at  variance 
with  that  kind  of  religious  taste  which  appreciates  the 
peculiarly  solemn  character  and  tone  of  the  litany  and 
the  collects. 

Baxter  candidly  admits,  that  he  made  "  an  entire 
Liturgy,  but  might  not  call  it  so,"  because  the  Com- 
missioners required  only  "  additions  to,  or  alterations  of, 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer."  f  How  a  completely 
new  Liturgy  could  come  under  the  latter  denomination 
I  cannot  understand.  As  he  omitted  all  reference  to 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  his  new  Directory  bore 
on  the  face  of  it  the  intention  of  superseding,  or  of 
rivalling  that  venerable  manual  of  devotion,  which  was 
quite  inconsistent  with  the  purpose  and  spirit  of  the 
Conference  :  and  wherever  the  one  might  have  been 
adopted,  it  would  virtually  have  put  the  other  aside. 
Still,   as   his  petition    shows,    he    was    willing    that    it 

*  "  Life,"  by  Boswell,  Vol.  IX.  141. 
t  "  Life  and  Times,"  IL  306. 


i8o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

should  be  left  for  ministers  to  decide  which  Liturgy 
they  would  adopt ;  and,  it  may  be  concluded,  that  he 
would  not  have  objected  to  a  blending  of  the  two, 
however  incongruous. 

The  Presbyterian  polemic,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
presented  his  new  formularies,  presented  a  petition  to 
the  Bishops,  begging  them  to  yield  to  such  terms  of 
peace  and  concord  as  they  themselves  confessed  to  be 
lawful.  "  For  though,"  as  he  argued,  "  we  are  equals 
in  the  King's  Commission,  yet  we  are  commanded  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  if  it  be  possible,  and  as  much  as  in  us 
lieth,  to  live  peaceably  with  all  men  ; — and  if  we  were 
denied,  it  would  satisfy  our  consciences,  and  justify  us 
before  all  the  world  ; "  * — two  points  which  the  honest 
theologian  ever  kept  in  mind.  He  craved  consent  to 
read  the  document ;  some  objected,  but,  ultimately,  the 
reading  of  it  was  allowed.  It  consisted  chiefly  of  an 
appeal  to  Christian  feeling,  founded  upon  a  variety  of 
considerations,  especially  upon  the  wrong  which  would 
be  done  to  the  Puritans,  and  the  mischief  inflicted  on 
the  Church  of  England  if  their  scruples  were  dis- 
regarded.! The  contrast  between  the  pacific  and  con- 
ciHatory  strain  of  the  petition,  and  the  repulsive  tone 
of  the  prelates'  answers  to  exceptions,  is  very  striking. 
A  rejoinder  to  the  Bishops'  replies,  touching  the 
exceptions,  followed,  on  the  part  of  the  ministers.  A 
preface  to  it  was  drawn  up  by  Calamy.  The  rejoinder 
itself,  composed  by  Baxter,  forming,  indeed,  a  book  of 
148  pages,  and  taking  up  the  Episcopal  document, 
paragraph  by   paragraph,  with  a  great  deal  of  close 

*  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  334. 

t  The  document  is  not  in  Cardwell  or  Baxter,  but  it  is  printed 
in  the  "  Documentary  Annals  relating  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity," 
176. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE   RESTORATION.  i8i 

reasoning  and  scholastic  subtilty,  is  too  extensive  in 
its  range,  and  too  minute  in  its  details,  to  admit  of  any 
synopsis  of  its  contents  being  presented  on  these  pages. 
But  a  sharp  reference,  at  the  close,  to  the  concessions 
offered  by  the  Bishops  must  be  noticed.  After  thank- 
ing them,  Baxter  adds,  in  the  name  of  his  brethren, 
"We  must  say  in  the  conclusion,  that,  if  these  be  all 
the  abatements  and  amendments  you  will  admit,  you 
sell  your  innocency  and  the  Church's  peace  for 
nothing."  * 

Time  wore  away,  and  nothing  resulted  from  these 
long  papers.  At  last  came  a  session  for  viva  voce 
debate.  The  Puritans  wished  the  Bishops  to  talk  freely, 
but  their  Lordships  maintained  a  prudent  reticence, 
and  even  Reynolds  could  not  persuade  his  brethren  by 
"  friendly  conference  to  go  over  the  particulars  excepted 
against ; "  they  resolutely  insisted  they  had  nothing  to 
do  until  the  necessity  for  alteration  should  be  proved  ; 
it  already  was  proved  in  the  estimation  of  Puritans,  but 
it  could  not  be  in  the  estimation  of  Anglicans.  All  hope 
of  a  pacifying  conference  being  abandoned,  the  Presby- 
terian Divines  agreed  to  a  debate  ;  many  hours  were 
spent  in  fixing  its  order.  The  Bishops,  according  to 
their  policy  throughout,  maintained  that  it  belonged 
to  their  accusers  to  begin :  they  were  simply  on  their 
own  defence.  No  effect  was  produced  by  the  Pres- 
byterians' rejoinder: — "We  are  the  defendants  against 
your  impositions,  you  command  us  to  do  certain  things 
under  pain  of  excommunication,  imprisonment,  and 
silence.  We  defend  ourselves  against  this  cruelty,  by 
asking  you  to  show  authority  for  this."     At  last  it  was 

*  The  rejoinder  is  neither  in  Baxter  nor  Cardwell,  but  it  is 
printed  at  length  in  the  "  Documentary  Annals  relating  to  the 
Act  of  Uniformity,"  201. 


1 82  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

settled,  that  there  should  be  a  formal  dispute,  to  be 
conducted  by  three  persons  on  each  side.  Strangers 
were  allowed  to  be  present,  and  the  room  was  full  of 
auditors,  young  Tillotson,  the  eminent  preacher  and 
Archbishop  of  later  days,  being  amongst  them.  The 
debate  turned  upon  vague  abstractions,  and  subtle 
distinctions,  occasionally  interrupted  by  outbursts  of 
temper  and  uncivil  personalities.  As  might  be  expected, 
the  Hall  of  the  Savoy  Palace  became  an  arena  for 
logical  gladiatorship,  and  the  object  of  the  meeting 
was  strife  for  victory. 

At  one  time  it  seemed  as  if  light  were  breaking 
through  the  clouds.  Bishop  Cosin,  who  on  the  occasion 
now  referred  to,  occupied  the  chair,  laid  before  the 
meeting  a  paper,  which,  he  said,  a  worthy  person  had 
offered  to  his  superiors.  It  contained  these  questions. 
Whether  there  be  anything  in  the  Doctrine,  or  Dis- 
cipline, or  the  Common  Prayer,  or  Ceremonies,  con- 
trary to  the  Word  of  God  .''  and  If  nothing  in  the 
Book  was  unscriptural,  what  the  Presbyterians  desired 
in  point  of  expediency }  The  paper  suggested  that 
such  desires  should  be  submitted  to  "  the  consideration 
and  judgment  of  the  Convocation,  who  are  the  proper 
and  authentic  representatives  of  the  Ministry."  *  Bax- 
ter drew  up  an  answer,  in  which  he  maintained  the 
principal  part  of  these  "proposals  to  be  rational,  regular, 
and  Christianlike."  After  going  over  much  of  the  old 
ground,  and  referring  to  the  Convocation  in  no  un- 
friendly spirit,  he  says  :  "  We  are  resolved  faithfully  to 
teach  the  people,  that  the  division  of  the  Church  is 
worse  than  inexpedient :"  and,  "We  conclude  with  the 
repetition  of  our  more  earnest  request,  that  these  wise 
and  moderate  proposals  may  be  prosecuted,  and  all 
*  Baxter,  II.  336,  341. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  183 

things  be  abated  us,  which  we  have  proved  or  shall 
prove  to  be  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God."  *  To  talk 
in  this  way  seemed  hopeful ;  but  hope  was  a  delusion. 
Each  party  suspected  the  other.  Mutual  confidence 
did  not  exist.  Baxter,  although  he  wrote  as  he  did, 
really  looked  at  the  seemingly  friendly  proposals  as 
"a  cunning  snare." 

The  paper  warfare  recommenced — the  disputants  on 
each  side,  "  writing  extempore,"  withdrawing  into 
another  room  for  that  purpose.f  The  first  subject 
discussed  was  the  "  imposition  of  kneeling,"  to  which 
Baxter,  although  he  took  the  gesture  itself  as  lawful, 
objected,  because  he  thought  antiquity  was  against  the 
custom,  and  because  "  the  penalty  is  so  immediate  and 
great,  to  put  all  that  kneel  not,  from  the  communion." 
With  this  discussion  was  connected  another,  as  to 
whether  there  is  anything  sinful  in  the  Liturgy.^  The 
following  specimen  in  relation  to  the  last  question  may 
give  some  idea  of  the  scholastic  forms  which  were 
employed.  The  Episcopal  opponents  maintained, 
"That  command  which  commandeth  only  an  act,  in 
itself  lawful,  is  not  sinful."  The  Presbyterian  respondents 
denied  this,  contending  that  some  unlawful  circum- 
stance might  hang  in  the  command,  or  that  the  penalty 
might  be  overcharged.  The  proposition,  after  revision, 
was  put  thus  :  "  That  command  which  commandeth  an 
act,  in  itself  lawful,  and  no  other  act  whereby  any 
unjust    penalty    is    enjoined,    nor    any    circumstance 

*  Given  in  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  341,  but  not  in  Cardwell's 
"  Conferences."  It  is  included  in  the  "  Documents  relating  to  the 
Act  of  Uniformity,"  346.  t  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  346. 

t  These  discussions  are  reported  by  Baxter,  II.  346.  That 
which  relates  to  the  sinfulness  of  the  Liturgy,  is  alone  included 
in  Cardwell's  "  Conferences,"  364.  Both  may  be  found  in  the 
"  Documents  relating  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity." 


1 84  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

whence  directly,  or  per  accidens  any  sin  is  consequent, 
which  the  commander  ought  to  provide  against,  is  not 
sinful."  The  respondents  denied  again,  on  the  ground, 
that  "  the  first  act  commanded  may  be  per  accidens 
unlawful,  and  be  commanded  by  an  unjust  penalty, 
though  no  other  act  or  circumstance  be  such."  The 
Bishops  amended  their  proposition  at  last,  making 
their  logical  network  so  fine  that  even  Baxter,  subtle 
as  he  might  be,  could  scarcely  wriggle  through  the 
meshes.  "  That  command  which  commandeth  an  act, 
in  itself  lawful,  and  no  other  act  whereby  any  unjust 
penalty  is  enjoined,  nor  any  circumstance  whence 
directly,  or  per  accidens,  any  sin  is  consequent,  which 
the  commander  ought  to  provide  against,  hath  in  it  all 
things  requisite  to  the  lawfulness  of  a  command,  and 
particularly  cannot  be  guilty  of  commanding  an  act 
per  accidens  unlawful,  nor  of  commanding  an  act  under 
an  unjust  penalty."*  Thomas  Aquinas  was  not  more 
acute,  more  ingenious,  or  more  wearisome,  Morley, 
many  years  afterwards,  urged  that  denying  such  a 
proposition  as  the  last,  was  not  only  false  and  frivolous, 
but  "  destructive  of  all  authority,"  and  struck  the 
Church  out  of  all  power  to  make  canons  for  order  and 
discipline. t  To  those  who  admit  that  the  Church 
may,  within  limits,  decree  rites  and  ceremonies,  and 
Baxter  in  his  arguments  did  not  deny  this,  Morley 's 
reasoning  is  forcible.  The  manner  in  which  Baxter 
met  the  position  of  his  opponents  was  by  no  means 
satisfactory,  and  his  warmest  admirers  must  acknow- 
ledge that  his  mode  of  conducting  this  part  of  the 
controversy  was  no  less  injudicious  than  honest. 

*  "  Life  and  Times,"  H.  359- 

t  "Letter  to  a  Friend  in  Vindication  of  Himself,  etc."  (1683), 
p.  8.     See  also  Calamy's  "Abridgment,"  169. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  185 

In  drawing  to  a  close  an  account  of  this  Conference, 
it  is  important  to  mention  that  the  Bill  of  Uniformity, 
hereafter  to  be  described,  actually  passed  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  9th  of  July,  about  a  fortnight  before 
the  Conference  broke  up.  The  proceedings  of  a  Royal 
Commission  to  review  the  Prayer  Book,  and  make 
alterations  for  the  satisfaction  of  tender  consciences 
were,  by  this  premature  act,  really  treated  with  mockery, 
a  circumstance  which  could  not  but  exceedingly  offend 
and  annoy  the  Puritan  members,  and  serve  to  embitter 
the  language  of  Baxter  as  the  end  of  these  fruitless 
sittings  approached.*  The  last  two  meetings  are  par- 
ticularly described  :  The  Doctors  on  the  Episcopalian 
side,  Baxter  says,  crowded  in  ;  not  more  than  two  or 
three  were  present  on  the  other  side.  Sanderson, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  occupied  the  chair,  "  a  very  worthy 
man,  but  for  that  great  peevishness,  which  injuries, 
partiality,  temperature,  and  age  had  caused  in  him." 
A  paper  by  Gunning  came  under  discussion.  He 
denied  a  statement  made  by  Baxter,  Bates,  and  Jacomb. 
The  latter,  on  oath,  confirmed  what  Baxter  said  ;  but 
the  Chairman  pronounced  that  Gunning  had  the  best 
of  it.  He  further  charged  Baxter  with  being  con- 
tentious. Baxter  told  him  that  it  was  strange,  a  man 
should  be  prevented  from  replying  to  his  antagonist. 
Gunning  advanced  citations  in  proof  of  his  point ;  upon 
which  Cosin  called  upon  all  the  Bishops  and  Doctors 
on  his  side,  at  that  moment  a  large  majority,  to  give 
their  votes.  They  all  cried  "  Aye  !  "  Those  who  are 
familiar  with  modern  committees,  and  with  what  occurs 
when  both  parties  lose  their  temper,  and  the  stronger 

*  See  "  Proctor  on  the  Prayer  Book,"  136.  Compare  Sander- 
son's "  Sermons,"  p.  12,  with  Orme's  "  Life  of  Baxter,"  p.  589,  for 
a  lively  statement  of  arguments  on  each  side. 


:86  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

carries  the  point,  can  understand  how  the  Savoy  Con- 
ference terminated.  "  We  were  all  agreed,"  says  Baxter, 
"  on  the  ends  for  the  Church's  welfare,  unity,  and  peace, 
and  His  Majesty's  happiness  and  contentment ;  but 
after  all  our  debates,  were  disagreed  of  the  means,  and 
this  was  the  end  of  that  Assembly  and  Commission."  * 

Thus  ended  the  last  of  three  great  Conferences 
between  Anglicans  and  Puritans ;  the  two  previous 
ones  being  held,  respectively,  at  Hampton  Court  before 
King  James,  and  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber  under 
Dean  Williams.  It  reminds  us  of  another  Conference, 
the  last  between  Romanists  and  Reformers,  carried  on 
in  Westminster  Abbey  in  the  month  of  March,  1559. 
Like  the  Romanist  Bishops  on  that  occasion,  the 
Anglican  Bishops  on  this,  protested,  with  some  reason, 
that  it  was  not  for  them  to  prove  the  Church's  doctrine 
to  be  true,  they  professed  the  old  established  faith  of 
Christendom,  if  it  was  attacked,  they  were  ready  to 
answer  objections.  But  unlike  the  Popish,  the  Anglican 
prelates  were  now  in  the  ascendant,  and  had  their 
opponents  at  their  feet.  The  Puritans,  on  the  other 
hand,  resembled,  as  to  relative  position,  the  Romanists, 
of  whom  it  is  remarked,  they  "  were  but  actors  in  a 
play,  of  which  the  finale  was  already  arranged."  f 

It  is  amusing  to  read  Baxter's  account  of  his  brother 
Commissioners.  Some,  he  says,  rarely  attended,  and 
when  they  did,  said  very  little.  Morleywas  often  there, 
a  chief  speaker,  with  fluent  words,  and  much  earnest- 
ness, vehemently  going  on,  and  bearing  down  replies 
by  his  interruptions.  Cosin  was  constant  in  attend- 
ance, talking  much,  with  little  logic,  though  with 
abundant   learning   in  canons,  councils,  and   patristic 

*  Baxter,  II.  357.     He  mixes  up  the  two  days  together. 
t  Froude's  "  History  of  England,"  VII.  75. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  187 

lore.  Henchman  was  the  most  grave  and  comely  of 
the  Bishops,  and  expressed  himself  calmly  and  slowly, 
with  some  reticence.  Gauden  was  almost  always 
present,  and  though  he  had  a  bitter  pen,  he  was 
moderate  in  speech,  "and  if  all  had  been  of  his  mind," 
says  our  reporter,  "  we  had  been  reconciled."  Reynolds 
spoke  much  the  first  day,  to  bring  his  Episcopal 
brethren  to  moderation  ;  a  "  solid,  honest  man,  but 
through  mildness  and  excess  of  timorous  reverence  to 
great  men,  altogether  unfit  to  contend  with  them."  Dr. 
Pearson  was  a  true  logician,  disputing  "  accurately, 
soberly,  and  calmly" — "breeding  in  us  a  great  respect 
for  him,  and  a  persuasion  that  if  he  had  been  indepen- 
dent he  would  have  been  for  peace."  Dr.  Gunning 
mixed  passionate  invectives  with  some  of  his  argumen- 
tations, though  understanding  well  what  belonged  to  a 
disputant,  but  "  so  vehement  for  his  high  imposing 
principles,  and  so  over  zealous  for  Arminianism  and 
formality  and  Church  pomp."*  Sterne,  Bishop,  of 
Carlisle,  "  looked  so  honestly  and  gravely  and  soberly," 
that  it  seemed,  such  a  face  could  not  have  deceived. 
Baxter's  judgment  of  physiognomy  here,  however, 
proved  to  be  at  fault,  for  when  the  prelate  once  broke 
silence,  it  was  to  exclaim, — as  Baxter  used  the  word 
"  nation  :  " — "  he  will  not  say  kingdom  lest  he  should 
own  a  king."t  While  Baxter  thus  spoke  of  his  oppo- 
nents, they  thus  spoke  of  him  :  "At  this  Conference 
in  the  Savoy,  that  reverend  and  great  man.  Bishop 
Morley,  tells  us,  the  generality  of  the  nonconforming 
Divines  showed  themselves  unwilling  to  enter  upon 
dispute,  and  seemed  to  like  much  better  another  way 
tending  to  an  amicable  and  fair  compliance,  which  was 

*  "  Life  and  Tiines,"  II.  363,  364. 
t  Ibid.,  338. 


1 88  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

frustrated  by  a  certain  person's  furious  eagerness  to 
engage  in  a  disputation,  meaning  Mr.  Baxter."  * 
"There  was  a  great  submission  paid  to  him  by  the 
whole  party.  So  he  persuaded  them,  that  from  the 
words  of  the  Commission  they  were  bound  to  offer 
every  thing  that  they  thought  might  conduce  to  the 
good  or  peace  of  the  Church,  without  considering  what 
was  Hke  to  be  obtained,  or  what  effect  their  demanding 
so  much  might  have,  in  irritating  the  minds  of  those 
who  were  then  the  superior  body  in  strength  and 
number."  t 

After  the  debates  were  over,  the  Presbyterians  waited 
on  the  Lord  Chancellor,  to  advise  with  him  as  to  the 
account  to  be  given  of  their  doings  to  the  King.  At 
first  His  Lordship  received  Baxter  "  merrily,"  and 
comparing  his  spare  figure  and  his  thin  face  with  the 
rotunder  form  and  plumper  cheeks  of  one  of  his  com- 
panions said,  "  If  you  were  as  fat  as  Dr.  Manton,  we 
should  all  do  well."  To  which  Baxter,  fixing  his  dark 
eyes  on  Clarendon,  replied,  "  If  His  Lordship  could 
teach  me  the  art  of  growing  fat,  he  should  find  me  not 
unwilling  to  learn  by  any  good  means."J  Becoming 
serious,  the  Chancellor  charged  the  Divine  with  being 
severe,  strict,  and  melancholy,  making  things  to  be  sin 
which  were  not  so.  The  latter  simply  rejoined,  that 
he  had  spoken  nothing  but  what  he  thought,  and 
nothing  but  what  he  had  given  reasons  for  thinking. 

*  "Protestant  Peace  Maker,"  by  Bishop  Rust,  1682. 

t  Burnet,  I.  180. 

X  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  364.  "Aug.  13. — A  facetious  Divine 
being  commended  to  Lord  Chancellor,  Sir  Edward  Hyde,  who 
loved  witty  men,  desired  to  converse  with  him  :  being  come  to 
him,  the  Chancellor  asked  him  his  name  ;  he  said  Bull ;  he 
replied  he  never  saw  a  bull  without  horns.  It  is  true  (was  the 
answer),  for  the  horns  go  with  the  hide."  ("  MS.  Diary  of 
Townshend.") 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  189 

He  afterwaards  drew  up  a  paper  in  the  form  of  a 
petition,  supplying  an  account  of  the  Conference  ;  and 
it  was  arranged  that  Reynolds,  Bates,  and  Manton 
should  present  the  document.  Baxter  accompanied 
them  at  their  own  request.  Manton  delivered  the 
paper  into  the  Royal  hands,  Reynolds  added  a  few 
words,  and,  of  course,  Baxter  could  not  be  silent.  He 
made,  as  he  represents,  "  a  short  speech,"  in  which  he 
informed  His  Majesty  how  far  they  had  agreed  with 
the  Bishops,  "  and  wherein  the  difference  did  not  lie,  as 
in  the  points  of  loyalty,  obedience,  and  Church  order." 
The  King  put  the  common-place  question  suggested  in 
all  such  disputes,  "  But  who  shall  be  judge  .-•  "  Baxter 
seized  the  opportunity  to  say  that  "  Judgment  is  either 
public  or  private — private  judgment  called  discretionis, 
which  is  but  the  use  of  my  reason  to  conduct  my 
actions,  belongeth  to  every  private  rational  man  ;  public 
judgment  is  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  and  belongeth  ac- 
cordingly to  the  ecclesiastical  governors  (or  pastors),  and 
the  civil,  and  not  to  any  private  man."  If  Charles  H. 
had  been  like  his  grandfather,  James,  a  scholastic  dis- 
cussion had  been  inevitable  ;  but  the  gay  grandson, 
perhaps  without  heeding  what  the  words  meant,  passed 
over  Baxter's  remark  in  silence.  The  Puritan  historian 
winds  up  all  with  the  curt  remark,  "And  this  was  the 
end  of  these  affairs."* 

Much  sorrow  and  trouble  sprung  out  of  the  Confer- 
ence. The  Episcopalian  Royalists  treated  their  oppo- 
nents as  a  vanquished  party,  and  retorted  on  their  old 
persecutors  by  calling  them  seditious  and  disaffected. 
Young  clergymen  hoped  they  were  on  the  road  to  pre- 
ferment if  they  reviled  and  calumniated  Presbyterians  ; 
and  Baxter  especially  became  a  butt  for  malignant 
*  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  365. 


I90  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

marksmen.  Even  his  prayers  were  heard  with  sus-- 
picion,  and  so,  as  he  said,  it  was  a  mercy  when  he  was 
silenced.  Yet  his  own  account  of  the  Conference  pro- 
duced a  favourable  impression  in  quarters  where  he 
and  his  friends  had  been  misapprehended.  The  Inde- 
pendents, in  the  first  instance,  had  been  annoyed  that 
the  Presbyterians  had  not  consulted  them  ;  some  of 
the  latter  Divines,  too,  had  been  jealous  of  their  more 
influential  brethren,  and  both  parties  had  joined  in 
saying  the  Puritan  Commissioners  were  too  forward  in 
meeting  the  Bishops,  and  too  ready  to  make  conces- 
sions, and  that  Baxter,  although  unimpeachable  as  to 
motives,  had  been  too  eager  for  concord,  and  too  ready 
for  compromise.  Now  the  printed  papers  turned  the 
tide  ;  Independents  admitted  that  the  Presbyterian 
Commissioners  had  been  faithful  to  their  principles. 

The  Independents  took  no  part  in  the  Conference 
at  Worcester  House  or  in  that  at  the  Savoy.  They 
were  not  consulted  by  Presbyterians,  an  instance  of 
neglect  which  some  of  the  Independents  resented  ;  but 
it  is  plain  from  a  consideration  of  the  principles  of  the 
latter  party  during  the  Civil  Wars  and  Commonwealth, 
that  they  could  not  consistently  unite  in  any  scheme 
for  comprehension.  Their  methods  of  Church  dis- 
cipline rendered  it  impossible  that  their  ecclesiastical 
institutions  should  work  in  harmony  with  an  Establish- 
ment. Why  the  Independents  were  overlooked  by  the 
Government  at  that  period,  is  obvious.  At  the  Restora- 
tion they  were  thrown  into  the  background.  Their 
previous  political  influence  had  sprung  from  their  con- 
nection with  the  Army,  from  the  favour  of  Republican 
officers,  and  from  the  religious  sympathies  of  Oliver 
Cromwell.  That  influence  terminated  on  the  eve  of 
the  King's  return  ;  and  it  is  easy,  without  suspecting 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  191 

their  loyalty,  to  understand  how  they  would,  at  such  a 
crisis,  lose  social  position  as  well  as  political  influence. 
Their  prosperity  under  the  Protectorate  necessarily 
entailed  their  adversity  at  the  Restoration.  Moreover, 
although  to  the  Presbyterians  there  remained  friends 
at  Court  in  the  Earl  of  Manchester  and  other  noble- 
men, the  Independents  enjoyed  no  aristocratic  patrons. 
The  Fleetwoods,  Desboroughs,  and  Berrys,  so  far  from 
being  able  to  assist  their  fellow-religionists,  had  enough 
to  do  to  take  care  of  themselves.  The  Presbyterians, 
as  we  have  seen,  had  still,  in  London,  clergymen  of 
high  standing  and  great  activity,  but  the  Independents 
could  not  make  any  boast  of  that  kind.  Dr.  Owen, 
who  of  them  all,  perhaps,  possessed  the  greatest  in- 
fluence, lived  in  retirement  at  Stadham.  John  Howe, 
never  a  party  man,  and  thoroughly  averse  to  the  occu- 
pations of  public  life,  quietly  pursued  his  pastoral 
duties  at  Torrington.  Dr.  Goodwin,  it  is  true,  had 
removed  to  the  metropolis  on  his  ejectment  from 
Oxford,  but  he  now  spent  his  time  in  seclusion  ;  and 
Caryl,  another  distinguished  member  of  the  Congre- 
gational body,  and  a  City  pastor,  preferred  commenting 
on  the  Book  of  Job,  to  any  entanglement  in  political 
affairs,  and  a  study  of  the  Old  Testament  example  of 
patience  suited  his  circumstances  exceedingly  well, 
Philip  Nye  was,  probably,  the  most  active  of  the 
denomination,  but  he  had  no  power  to  serve  the 
cause,  forasmuch,  as  at  the  time  of  the  Restoration  he 
had  narrowly  escaped  the  fate  of  Hugh  Peters.  He 
was  let  off"  by  Parliament  with  a  simple  disqualification 
for  exercising  any  office,  ecclesiastical,  military,  or  civil. 
In  a  petition  he  humbly  tendered  in  January,  1662,  we 
find  him  representing  himself  as  a  minister  of  forty 
years'  standing,  now  become  infirm,  with  a  wife  and 


192  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  V. 

three  children  unprovided  for,  his  present  maintenance 
depending  on  voluntary  contributions,  which  if  taken 
away  would  leave  him  penniless  and  ruined.*  The 
Independents,  as  a  party,  were  not  in  a  position  to 
render  it  a  matter  of  importance  that  the  Government 
should  conciliate  them  ;  nor  did  they  manifest  any 
desire  to  secure  for  their  system  the  temporal  benefits 
of  State  endowment.  Their  retirement  from  the  stage 
of  public  affairs  brought  them  no  disadvantage.  Pro- 
vidence had  appointed  for  them  a  moral  discipline,  of 
which  the  fruit  was  to  appear  in  after  years.  They 
had  embraced  principles  conducive  to  the  freedom  and 
spirituality  of  the  Church,  and  they  were  destined  to 
take  an  important  part  in  the  development  of  English 
Christianity  through  the  diffusion  of  those  principles. 
Their  disconnection  with  the  Establishment  harmonized 
with  that  destiny.  The  Baptists,  like  the  Independents, 
and  for  similar  reasons,  were  unrepresented  in  the 
Commission  ;  so  indeed,  also,  if  we  except  Reynolds, 
were  the  moderate  Episcopalians,  who  although  not 
prepared  to  go  so  far  as  their  High  Church  brethren  in 
the  matter  of  conformity,  were  ready  to  advance  in 
that  direction  much  beyond  the  limits  marked  out  by 
the  Presbyterians  ;  but  looking  at  the  temper  on  the 
other  side,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
presence  and  counsels  of  such  men  would  have  altered 
the  results  of  the  discussions. 

Having  described  the  Savoy  Conference,  and  the 
contemporary  meetings  of  Convocation,  there  remain 
to  be  noticed  the  proceedings  of  that  higher  assembly, 
with  which  both  the  others  were  coeval. 

*  Kennet's  "  Historical  Register,"  269,  602. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  193 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  had  been  displaced 
a  year,  and  the  New  Parliament  resolved  to  brand 
it  with  fresh  indignities.*  Accordingly  it  was,  by  the 
common  hangman,  burnt  at  Westminster,  in  Cheapside, 
and  before  the  Exchange.  The  executioner  "did  his 
work  perfectly  well ;  for  having  kindled  his  fire,  he  tore 
the  document  into  very  many  pieces,  and  first  burnt 
the  preface ;  and  then  cast  each  parcel  solemnly  into 
the  fire,  lifting  up  his  hands  and  eyes,  not  leaving  the 
least  shred,  but  burnt  it  root  and  branch."!  Similar 
spectacles  were  enacted  elsewhere  ;  and  at  Bury  St. 
Edmunds,  upon  the  anniversary  of  the  Restoration, 
amidst  floral  decorations,  and  the  adornment  of  houses 
with  tapestry  and  pictures,  after  service  at  Church, 
Hugh  Peters  was  gibbeted  in  effigy,  with  the  Solemn 
League  grasped  in  his  hand,  and  the  Directory  tucked 
under  his  arm.  In  Southampton,  after  the  firing  of 
culverins,  and  the  marching  of  scarlet-robed  Aldermen, 
there  followed  the  burning  of  the  Covenant,  "in  a 
stately  frame,  taken  from  the  chancel  of  an  Anabaptist 
Church."t  As  a  further  indication  of  the  temper  of 
the  Commons  at  the  moment,  it  may  be  stated,  that 

*  "  Commons' Journals,"  May  17th. 
t  "  Mercurius  Publicus,"  May  30th. 
%  "Public  Intelligencer,"  June  6-i3th. 

VOL.    Ill,  O 


194  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

the  Speaker  rebuked  the  Mayor  of  Northampton, 
summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  House  for  irreverent 
carriage  in  the  church,  and  at  the  communion  table  ; 
and  that  a  Bill  was  read  three  times  for  preventing 
mischiefs  and  dangers,  which  might  arise  from  persons 
called  Quakers,  and  others  "refusing  to  take  lawful 
oaths."* 

Ere  the  House  had  been  sitting  two  months.  Bills 
were  introduced  of  such  a  character  as  to  prove,  that, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  Session,  measures  had  been 
framed  for  bringing  back  the  Church  to  the  standard 
of  former  days,  without  making  concessions  to  Non- 
conformists. The  Bills  now  about  to  be  described,  did 
not  appear  one  after  another,  as  expedients  adopted 
for  public  safety  in  consequence  of  plots,  real  or  sus- 
pected, but  they  constituted  parts  of  one  coherent 
and  comprehensive  method  for  re-establishing  Epis- 
copacy and  crushing  Dissent.  They  must  be  traced 
distinctly. 

I.  A  Bill  for  restoring  the  prelates  to  the  Upper 
House  was  introduced  to  the  Commons  by  "  a  gentle- 
man of  a  Presbyterian  family,"  and  it  met  with  little 
opposition.  The  ancient  constitution  of  the  Upper 
House  could  be  successfully  pleaded  in  its  favour,  but 
it  involved  the  principle  of  a  State  Establishment  of 
religion  ;  and  would,  if  discussed  by  voluntaries  on 
the  one  hand,  and  by  the  advocates  of  a  nationally 
established  Church  on  the  other,  raise  the  whole  ques- 
tion as  to  the  Christian  legitimacy  and  the  social  justice 
of  such  an  arrangement.  It  involved,  also,  the  recog- 
nition of  Prelacy  as  the  most  expedient,  if  not  the 

*  "Commons'  Journals,"  June  17,  29,  July  12,  16,  19.  Read 
first  time  in  the  Lords,  July  23  ;  after  which  no  notice  of  it  occurs. 
The  Lords  were  less  intolerant  than  the  Commons. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:  195 

most  scriptural  form  of  ecclesiastical  government,  and 
would  thus  present  a  momentous  subject  of  controversy 
to  Presbyterians.  But  few,  if  any,  decided  voluntaries 
could  then  be  found  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  the 
number  of  Presbyterians  also  was  small,  and  their 
influence  manifestly  on  the  dechne. 

Upon  the  Bill  reaching  the  Lords,  some  obstruction 
of  a  different  kind  from  that  which,  under  other  cir- 
cumstances, might  have  been  expected,  arose  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  Earl  of  Bristol.  He  obtained  an 
interview  with  the  King  and  told  him  "  that  if  this  Bill 
should  speedily  pass,  it  would  absolutely  deprive  the 
Catholics  of  all  those  graces  and  indulgence  which  he 
intended  to  them  ;  for  that  the  Bishops,  when  they 
should  sit  in  the  House,  whatever  their  own  opinions 
or  inclinations  were,  would  find  themselves  obliged, 
that  they  might  preserve  their  reputation  with  the 
people,  to  contradict  and  oppose  whatsoever  should 
look  like  favour  or  connivance  towards  the  Catholics : 
and  therefore,  if  His  Majesty  continued  his  former 
gracious  inclination  towards  the  Roman  Catholics,  he 
must  put  some  stop  (even  for  the  Bishops'  own  sakes) 
to  the  passing  that  Bill,  till  the  other  should  be  more 
advanced,  which  he  supposed  might  shortly  be  done."  * 
Charles  listened,  and  desired  the  Earl  to  inform  his 
friends  in  the  House,  that  he  "  would  be  well  pleased, 
that  there  should  not  be  overmuch  haste  in  the  pre- 
senting that  Bill  for  his  Royal  assent,"  Its  progress 
was  accordingly  retarded  in  Committee,  until  the  Chan- 
cellor decided  the  Monarch,  who,  veering  from  point  to 
point,  according  to  influence  employed  by  his  Courtiers, 
at  last  consented  that  the  Bill  might  be  despatched. 
It  passed  at  the  end  of  the  Session  ;  and  when  the 
*  Clarendon's  "  Continuation,"  1070. 


196  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap  VI. 

Parliament  was  adjourned  at  the  end  of  July,  and  the 
Speaker  in  his  robes,  at  the  summons  of  Black  Rod, 
knelt  before  the  enthroned  Sovereign,  the  measure  was 
the  subject  of  emphatic  reference  in  a  speech  filled  with 
quaint  conceits.* 

II.  Next,  in  the  course  of  proceedings  bearing  upon 
religion,  came  the  Bill  for  the  well-governing  of  Cor- 
porations. It  was  early  read,  speedily  committed,  and 
largely  discussed  ;  and  within  a  month  of  its  being 
introduced,  it  passed  the  Lower  House.  The  Lords 
amended  it,  and,  according  to  the  complaint  of  the 
Commons,  changed  "the  whole  body  of  the  Bill." 
First  read  on  the  19th  of  June,  it  did  not  receive  the 
Royal  assent  until  the  20th  of  December.f  The  Act 
required  that  all  members  of  Corporations  should, 
besides  taking  the  Oath  of  Supremacy,  swear  that  it 
is  not  lawful,  under  any  pretence,  to  bear  arms  against 
the  King,  and  that  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant 
was  illegal.  It  also  declared  every  one  ineligible  for 
a  municipal  office,  who  had  not,  within  one  year,  re- 
ceived the  Lord's  Supper,  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England. 

III.  The  House,  on  the  25th  of  June,  appointed  a 
Committee  to  report,  how  far  the  coercive   power  of 

*  "Pari  Hist.,"  IV.  219.  I  may  here  mention,  as  an  illustration 
of  the  spirit  for  dishonouring  the  dead — and  that  too  on  the  anti- 
Episcopal  as  well  as  the  anti-Puritan  side — that  there  are  repeated 
references  in  the  "Journals  "  of  the  Lords  during  this  Session,  to 
accusations  brought  against  Matthew  Hardy,  for  taking  up  the 
body  of  Archbishop  Parker,  for  selling  the  lead  wherein  he  was 
wrapped,  for  defacing  his  monument,  for  turning  his  tombstone 
into  a  table,  and  for  burying  "  the  bones  of  that  worthy  person 
under  a  dunghill."  ("  Lords'  Journals,"  1661,  July  24,  Dec.  9,  13, 
Jan.  14,  28.) 

t  See  "Journals."  The  Bill  was  read  the  first  time  in  the 
House  of  Lords  the  17th  of  July. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOK  197 

Ecclesiastical  Courts  had  been  taken  away,  and  to 
prepare  a  Bill  for  their  restoration.  The  Bill  provided 
that,  although  the  High  Commission  had  been  abolished, 
Archbishops,  Bishops,  and  other  persons  exercising 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  should  have  their  power  re- 
stored as  before,  two  provisions  being  subjoined,  one 
forbidding  the  use  of  the  ex  officio  oath,  and  another 
preserving  the  Royal  Supremacy  from  abridgment. 
This  Bill  involved  the  further  re-establishment  of  Epis- 
copalianism.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  debate  was 
raised  on  that  ground.  The  Bill  passed,  as  if  a  matter 
of  course  ;  and  together  with  the  Bill,  re-instating  the 
Bishops,  received  the  Royal  assent  before  the  end  of 
July.*  Thus  within  a  few  weeks,  three  measures  were 
introduced,  and  two  of  them  were  carried,  tending  to  re- 
press Dissent  and  consolidate  the  Episcopalian  Church. 
The  fourth  measure,  which  was  central  in  point  of  im- 
portance, remains  to  be  considered.  Its  origin  and 
progress  must  be  patiently  followed. 

IV.  Whilst  many  of  the  Episcopalian  party  assumed 
the  existence  of  a  legal  obligation  to  use  the  Common 
Prayer,  some  Nonconformists  adopted  this  curious  line 
of  argument :  "  That  the  Common  Prayer  Book,  5th 
and  6th  of  Edward  VI.,  with  some  alterations  made 
1st  of  Elizabeth,  was  so  established  we  know,  but  what 
that  book  was,  or  where  it  is,  we  cannot  tell ;  it  is 
apparent  that  the  books  ordinarily  walking  up  and 
down  are  not  so  established."  t  It  would  seem  as  if 
this  odd  kind  of  objection  secured  some  respect;  for 
the  first  step  towards  a  settlement  of  the  question  of 
worship  is  found  in  a  resolution,  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, that  a  Committee  of  all  the  members,  who  were 

*  See  "Journals  and  Statutes,"  13  Car.  II.,  St.  I.  cxii. 
t  Quoted  in  Kennet's  "  Register,"  374. 


198  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

of  the  Long  Robe,*  should  view  the  several  laws  for 
confirming  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
make  search,  whether  the  original  Book  of  the  Liturgy, 
annexed  to  the  Act  passed  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  years 
of  the  reign  of  King  Edward  VL,  was  still  extant ;  they 
were  also  "  to  bring  in  a  compendious  Bill  to  supply 
any  defect  in  the  former  laws,  and  to  provide  for  an 
effectual  conformity  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  for 
the  time  to  come." 

It  cannot  be  ascertained  how  the  new  measure  origi- 
nated, but  we  may  be  sure  that  Government  would  not 
leave  it  to  be  dealt  with  by  any  private  person.  It 
formed  part  of  a  manifold  scheme  which  must  have 
had  a  single  origin.  The  practice  of  holding  Cabinet 
meetings,  long  regarded  with  jealousy  by  pedantic 
Constitutionalists,  had  commenced  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  I.  That  business-like  and  hard-working 
Monarch  had,  from  time  to  time,  drawn  around  him 
a  few  select  members  of  his  Privy  Council,  whom  he 
assembled  in  his  Cabinet^  as  it  was  called  ;  and  it 
appears  that  sometimes  they  had  been  obliged  to 
register  his  absolute  decrees,  rather  than  by  their 
advice  to  control  his  headstrong  career.  Charles  II., 
idle  and  dissolute,  in  that  respect  the  opposite  of  his 
father,  held  meetings  of  the  same  description,  not  that 
he  might  guide  the  helm,  but  often  that  he  might  sit 
on  the  quarter-deck,  and  laugh  and  joke  with  the 
officers,  whilst  they  managed  the  ship  very  much  as 
they  pleased.  The  proposal  of  a  new  Law  of  Uni- 
formity probably  was  made  and  discussed  at  one  of 
these  private  conferences  ;  and  it  also  seems  probable. 


*  "Journals,"  June  25th.     The  same  Committee  as  I  have  just 
mentioned. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  199 

that  the  proposal  emanated  from  Lord  Clarendon,  who 
was,  to  all  intents,  Prhne  Minister. 

In  connection  with  the  appointment  of  the  Committee, 
the  House  recommended  that  the  preparation  of  the 
Bill  should  be  entrusted  to  the  care  of  Serjeant  Keeling. 
He  had  been  engaged  as  Junior  Counsel  for  the  Crown 
on  the  trial  of  the  Regicides,  in  1660  ;  and  for  his 
activity  and  zeal  on  that  occasion,  had  attained  to  the 
distinction  of  the  coif  He  was  subsequently  entrusted 
with  the  prosecution  of  Hacker,  Colonel  of  the  Guard 
at  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  After  the  new  Bill  of 
Uniformity  had  passed,  he  conducted  the  prosecution 
of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  in  1662  ;  and  on  each  of  these 
occasions  approved  himself  to  the  ruling  party,  and 
especially  to  Clarendon,  as  a  useful  instrument.  Created 
a  puisne  Judge  in  1663,  he  subsequently  rose  to  a  Chief 
Justiceship,  over  the  head  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale  ;  and 
whilst  on  the  bench  manifested  his  devotedness  to  the 
Church,  by  fining  a  jury  one  hundred  marks  each,  for 
acquitting  a  few  poor  people,  who  assembled  on  Sunday 
with  Bibles  without  Prayer-books.  He  was  a  violent 
man,  and  had  the  character  of  being  more  fit  to  charge 
Roundheads  under  Prince  Rupert,  than  to  charge  juries 
from  the  bench  of  justice.*  When,  at  length,  his  arbi- 
trary proceedings  and  a  contemptuous  allusion  which 
he  made  to  Magna  Charta,  brought  him  under  the 
notice  of  Parliament,  he  escaped  its  condemnation,  only 
by  an  act  of  obsequious  submission. 

The  Bill  prepared  by  this  lawyer  came  before  the 
Commons  on  the  29th  of  June,  and  was  read  a  first 
time.  The  second  reading  followed  on  the  3rd  of  July. 
No  account  is  preserved  of  the  debate.  History  is  as 
silent  respecting  what  ensued  within  the  walls  of  St. 

*  Lord  Campbell's  "  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices." 


200  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Stephen's  after  Keeling  had  expounded  his  measure, 
as  it  is  silent  relative  to  any  discussion  of  the  principle 
and  details  of  other  Bills  previously  introduced  for  the 
re-institution  of  the  Episcopalian  Church.  The  Serjeant, 
perhaps,  would  deem  it  unnecessary  to  enter  into  a 
lengthened  argument  in  favour  of  imposing  some  one 
form  of  religious  worship  upon  the  nation,  since  the 
desirableness  of  such  uniformity  was  a  foregone  con- 
clusion with  almost  all  the  members  of  the  House. 
But  would  he  not  defend  his  proposal  against  the 
objections  of  Presbyterians }  Would  not  they  have 
something  to  advance  during  the  proceedings  }  The 
wish  to  know  what  was  said  on  either  side  seems 
altogether  in  vain. 

Upon  the  second  reading,  the  printed  Prayer  Book 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  not  that  of  Edward,  in  1552,  was 
attached  to  the  Bill,  and  a  Committee  was  named  to 
meet  in  the  Star  Chamber.  They  were  directed,  if  the 
original  book  of  Edward  before  specified  could  not  be 
found,  to  report  upon  the  printed  one  of  Elizabeth. 
No  reference  to  the  original  book  of  Edward  appears 
in  the  subsequent  proceedings.*  On  the  day  when  the 
Bill  was  committed,  Serjeant  Keeling,  with  Sir  John 
Maynard,  and  another  member,  were  ordered  to  pre- 
pare a  measure  for  "  calling  in  all  seditious  and  schis- 
matical  books  and  pamphlets  ; "  and  the  names  of  the 
members  who  had  not  taken  the  Lord's  Supper  were 

*  Cardwell  says,  "  It  is  probable,  as  the  book  is  not  uncommon 
now,  that  a  copy  of  it  was  produced,  and  was  not  found  to  be 
sufficiently  in  accordance  with  the  higher  tone  of  ordinances, 
which,  since  the  days  of  Elizabeth  had  more  generally  prevailed.'' 
(Cardwell's  "  Conferences,"  376.)  But  it  is  more  likely  the  reason  J 
might  be  that  the  original  ox  MS.  of  the  book  could  not  be  found. 
I  have  sought  in  vain  for  some  information  to  throw  light  on  thisj 
circumstance. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  201 

reported.  The  House  with  one  hand  thus  exercised 
Church  discipline,  whilst  with  the  other  hand  it  was 
making  Church  law.  Upon  the  8th  of  July,  Sir 
Edmond  Peirce  reported  that  several  amendments  had 
been  agreed  to  ;  and  upon  the  9th,  the  "  Bill  for  the 
Uniformity  of  Public  Prayers  and  Administration  of 
Sacraments  "  was  read  a  third  time  and  passed  ;  and 
instead  of  a  Prayer  Book,  printed  in  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth, another  printed  in  the  reign  of  King  James  (1604) 
"  was,  at  the  Clerk's  table,  annexed  to  the  said  Bill  ; 
part  of  the  two  prayers  inserted  therein,  before  the 
Reading  Psalms,  being  first  taken  out,  and  the  other 
part  thereof  obliterated."  *  This  copy  of  the  Prayer 
Book  appears  to  have  been  attached  to  the  Bill  chiefly 
for  the  sake  of  form,  as  the  Book  had  not  yet  been 
examined  and  revised  by  Convocation.  That  important 
business  was  not  performed  until  the  close  of  the  year ; 
and  in  the  final  stage  of  proceedings,  before  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  passed,  this  scarcely  altered  volume  was 
superseded  by  the  revised  one,  which  was  fastened  to 
the  Bill  as  passed,  and  which  has  recently  been  pub- 
lished in  a  facsimile  form.  Thus  everything  connected 
with  the  proceedings  showed  the  utmost  despatch ; 
and  upon  Wednesday  the  loth  of  July  "the  Bill  for 
establishing  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  brought 
up  to  the  Lords  by  a  very  great  number  of  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  to  testify  their  great  desire 
for  the  settlement  of  the  Church  of  England."  f  The 
Bill  as  it  left  the  Commons  differed  materially  from 
the  Act  as  it  ultimately  passed.  Those  differences  will 
appear  in  the  sequel. 

Although  the  Bill  reached  the  Upper  House  on  the 

*  See  "Journals"  under  dates. 
t  "  Mercurius  Publicus." 


202  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

lOth  of  July,  it  did  not  come  under  discussion  there 
for  more  than  five  months.  This  may  be  accounted 
for.  Curious  as  it  may  seem,  the  Bill  for  Uniformity 
had  passed  the  Commons  before  it  had  been  decided 
what  the  Uniformity  should  be.  New  prayers  were 
composed  by  Convocation  before  it  broke  up  in  July ; 
but  the  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  by  Convocation 
did  not  commence  until  the  month  of  November,  four 
months  after  the  Bill  had  been  sent  up  from  the  Com- 
mons. The  Bill  could  not  be  completely  carried  before 
the  revision  was  settled  ;  and  the  Convocation  did  not 
accomplish  that  task  until  the  end  of  the  year.  Another 
cause  of  delay  is  seen  in  the  fact,  that  the  Bishops  were 
not  restored  to  their  seats  until  the  20th  of  November  ; 
and  it  was  important,  if  not  constitutionally  essential, 
for  them  to  take  part  in  the  decision  of  a  question  like 
this. 

At  the  time  when  the  new  Bill  reached  the  Lords, 
they  were  engaged  upon  a  report  concerning  the  penal 
laws  against  Papists.  Hoping  to  share  in  any  relief 
which  might  be  extended  to  the  last-named  religionists, 
certain  Anabaptists  and  "good  Christians,"  as  they 
called  themselves,  had  presented  a  petition  upon  the 
5th  of  July,  and  were  on  the  12th  permitted  to  plead 
on  their  own  behalf  The  Lords  finished  the  report  on 
the  penal  laws  against  Catholics  upon  the  i6th  of  the 
month ;  and  a  Committee  was  then  appointed  to  pre- 
pare a  Bill  to  repeal  certain  statutes  concerning  Jesuits, 
also  the  clause  in  the  Act  of  the  35th  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth c.  I.,  respecting  Nonconformists,  together  with  the 
writ  de  Hceretico  Combiirendo.  The  reasons  of  the 
alterations  were  to  be  set  forth,  and  proper  remedies 
were  to  be  devised  for  preserving  the  Protestant  religion 
from  any  inconveniences  incident  upon  the  repeal  of 


I 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  203 

these  ancient  enactments.  Such  proceedings,  at  first 
sight,  appear  as  so  much  progress  towards  religious 
liberty :  but  there  is  ground  for  beHeving  that  the 
reference  to  the  statute  against  Nonconformists,  only- 
served  to  cover  some  relief  designed  for  the  Papists. 
Whatever  the  real  intention  might  be,  the  whole 
business  soon  dropped,  and  no  further  allusion  to  it 
is  found  in  the  Journals  ;  nor  during  the  remainder  of 
the  year  1661  is  any  further  mention  made  of  the  Bill 
of  Uniformity. 

In  those  days  the  transmission  of  intelligence  to  the 
provinces  could  not  be  otherwise  than  slow,  and  when  it 
had  reached  its  destination  it  often  proved  inaccurate. 
The  broad-wheeled  coach,  or  the  horse  laden  with 
saddle-bags,  could  only,  with  measured  pace,  convey 
the  London  citizen  to  the  house  of  a  country  friend. 
The  news  which  he  related  at  the  supper-table,  or 
which  he  conveyed  in  some  quaintly  written  epistle, 
would  then  be  stale  indeed,  according  to  the  judgment 
of  such  as  are  familiar  with  telegrams.  The  cumbrous 
stage-waggon,  more  heavily  laden,  would  be  slower  still 
in  its  movements,  and  by  the  time  it  reached  the  rural 
inn,  the  newspapers  it  carried  would  be  far  advanced 
in  age.  Altogether  the  "  Mercuries  "  were  tardy  in  their 
flight  and  the  "  Public  Intelligencers "  were  addicted 
to  garbling  reports,  and  falsifying  stories.  What  had 
been  done  in  the  Session  would,  therefore,  not  be 
known  in  distant  counties  until  some  time  afterwards  ; 
and  then,  probably,  in  some  instances,  reports  would 
be  circulated  through  a  town  or  a  village  in  erroneous 
form.  Tidings  of  the  new  Bill,  in  confused  fashion, 
struggled  down  to  Worthenbury,  seven  miles  from 
Wrexham,  where  lived  the  eminently  pious  Philip 
Henry.     Just  before  the  Bill  passed  its  last  stage  in 


204  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

the  Lower  House,  he  received  news  from  London  of 
speedy  severity  intended  against  Nonconformists.  In 
daily  doubt  of  what  was  to  happen,  he,  on  the  7th  of 
July  recorded,  that  "  In  despite  of  enemies  the  Lord 
hath  granted  the  liberty  of  one  Sabbath  more."  Next 
day  he  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  Bridgeman  (the  re- 
stored Rector),  informing  him  that  if  he  did  not 
speedily  conform,  he.  Dr.  Bridgeman,  could  no  longer 
protect  him.  Henry  wrote  a  "  dilatory  answer,"  to  the 
Episcopalian  clergyman,  hoping  that  time  might  bring 
some  deliverance.  The  old  Incumbent  acted  kindly. 
On  the  24th,  news  of  the  progress  of  the  Bill  reached 
the  Flintshire  rectory,  and  shaped  itself  into  a  report, 
that  the  Bill  had  passed  both  Houses,  and  now  only 
waited  His  Majesty's  assent.  "  Lord,  his  heart  is  in 
Thy  hand,"  ejaculated  the  devout  Puritan  ;  "  if  it  be 
Thy  will,  turn  it ;  if  otherwise,  fit  Thy  people  to  suffer, 
and  cut  short  the  work  in  righteousness."  * 

Means  were  not  wanting  for  the  annoyance  of  Non- 
conformist ministers  by  those  who  wished  to  restore 
the  surplice  and  the  Liturgy ;  and  on  Sunday,  the  25th 
of  August,  1661,  just  a  year  before  the  legal  enforce- 
ment of  Uniformity,  Oliver  Heywood  had  the  Prayer 
Book  publicly  presented  to  him  in  his  Church,  with  a 
demand  that  he  would  use  it  in  the  devotions  of  the 
day.  It  was  laid  on  the  pulpit  cushion.  He  quietly 
took  it  down,  and  placed  it  on  the  reading-desk,  and 
then  went  on  with  the  service  in  the  accustomed 
Presbyterian  fashion,  being  "  wonderfully  assisted,"  as 
he  remarks,  "  that  day,  in  praying  and  preaching."  It 
is  difficult,  even  amidst  the  strongest  excitement  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  to  conceive  of  the  bitter  feelings 
which  existed  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth.     Ourj 

*  Williams'  "  Life  of  Philip  Henry,"  91,  92. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  205 

abuse  is  courtesy,  compared  with  the  abuse  which 
prevailed  then.  Fierce  diatribes  were  uttered  from 
parish  pulpits  by  restored  Incumbents  against  Round- 
heads, Anabaptists,  and  Quakers.  They  were  denounced 
as  rebels  who  had  narrowly  escaped  the  gallows. 
"  Many  of  you,"  said  Dr.  Reeve,  in  the  Abbey  Church 
of  Waltham,  "have  gotten  a  pardon  for  all  your 
exorbitances,  but  death  will  seal  no  act  of  indemnity. 
Ye  have  escaped  the  halter  of  many  of  your  fellow 
miscreants,  but  death  hath  set  up  her  gibbet  for  you."  * 
The  press  also  was  plied  for  reducing  intractable 
parishes  into  a  state  of  submission.  Swarms  of 
pamphlets  and  broadsides  were  issued,  some  reprints, 
some  originals,  with  a  view  to  support  the  Church  by 
argument,  or  by  satire,  or  by  ridicule.f  Marvellous 
stories  also  were  manufactured  about  the  devil  having 
appeared  to  fanatics,  who,  late  at  night,  were  on  their 
way  to  Conventicles  ;  and  sharp,  severe,  and  unjust 
things  were  also  said  on  the  other  side.J 

Parliament,  which  had  been  adjourned  in  July,  re- 
assembled in  November.  Charles,  on  the  20th  of  that 
month,  attired  in  crimson  velvet,  the  crown  on  his 
head,  the  sceptre  in  his  hand,  sat  upon  the  throne  of  his 
fathers,  attended  by  a  good  number  of  Earls  and 
Barons,  occupying  their  benches.  It  was  a  proud  day 
for  the  Church  of  England  ;  for  then,  the  first  time 
after  a  lapse  of  twenty  years,  the  Spiritual  Fathers,  in 

*  "  The  Cedar's  Sad  and  Solemn  Fall." 

t  I  may  mention  the  "  Presbyterian  Lash  or  Noctroft's  Maid 
whipt,"  a  piece  of  coarse  and  filthy  satire,  and  an  "Antidote 
against  Melancholy,  made  up  in  Pills;"  compounded  of "  witty 
ballads,  and  jovial  and  merry  catches,"  in  which  there  is  the  song 
of  the  "  Hot-headed  Zealot,"  and  "The  Schismatic  Rotundos." 

\  In  none  of  the  Nonconformist  pubHcations  of  that  day,  have  I 
ever  seen  anything  like  the  scurrility  poured  upon  them  by  their 
opponents. 


2o6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Uhap.  VI. 

their  scarlet  robes,  as  Peers  of  the  realm,  filled  their 
ancient  seats  ;  and  His  Majesty,  it  seems,  came  to  the 
House  partly  in  honour  of  their  re-instatement.  "  My 
Lords  and  Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Commons,"  he 
remarked  ;  "  I  know  the  visit  I  make  you  this  day  is 
not  necessary,  is  not  of  course,  yet,  if  there  were  no 
more  in  it,  it  would  not  be  strange  that  I  come  to  see 
what  you  and  I  have  so  long  desired  to  see,  the  Lords, 
Spiritual  and  Temporal,  and  the  Commons  of  England 
met  together." 

The  greater  part  of  the  speech  from  the  Throne 
related  to  the  crying  debts  which  every  day  he  heard  ; 
but  before  the  King  ended,  he  said  :  "  Those  [things] 
which  concern  matters  of  religion,  I  confess  to  you,  are 
too  hard  for  me,  and  therefore  I  do  commend  them  to 
your  care  and  deliberation  which  can  best  provide  for 
them."  *  He  was  no  polemic  like  his  grandfather  ;  but 
he  had  himself,  in  the  autumn  of  1 660,  undertaken  to 
manage  the  Church  question ;  a  year's  experience, 
however,  had  taught  him  a  little  wisdom,  and  no 
wonder  that  the  subject  which  had  been  more  than 
Charles  V.  could  manage  in  Germany,  had  proved 
much  too  hard  for  Charles  H.  in  England. 

The  Lord  Chancellor  delivered  a  message  to  the 
House  of  Peers  on  the  19th  of  December,  to  the  effect 
that,  besides  the  apprehensions  and  fears  then  generally 
prevalent,  His  Majesty  had  received  alarming  letters 
from  several  parts  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  also  that  from 
intercepted  letters,  it  appeared  there  were  many  dis- 
contented persons  troubling  the  nation's  peace ;  in 
consequence  of  which  he  sought  the  assistance  of 
Parliament.!  The  contents  of  some  of  these  letters 
we  know.     The  object  of  informers,  and  of  the  people 

*  "  Lords'  Journals."  f  Ibid. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  207 

who  rifled  the  post,  was  to  make  it  appear  that  Non- 
conformists were  disaffected,  that  Dissent  was  treason  ; 
and  that  measures  ought  to  be  adopted  for  the  utter 
extinction  of  the  growing  evil.  Yet  the  accusers,  in 
many  cases,  were  forced  to  acknowledge,  that  the 
accused  were  quiet  when  let  alone.  The  letters  prove 
that  the  nation  felt  dissatisfied,*  that  multitudes  mur- 
mured against  the  Government,  that  Republican  ofiicers 
were  unsettled,  and  that  some  were  watching  for  a 
good  opportunity  to  take  up  arms.  A  few  fanatics 
entertained  rebellious  designs  ;  but  that  Presbyterians, 
Independents,  Baptists,  or  Quakers,  either  generally 
or  in  large  numbers,  were  covering  political  plots 
under  a  veil  of  religious  worship,  the  point  sought  to 
be  established,  is  an  unfounded  surmise,  indeed  a  pure 
invention. 

An  example  of  the  method  employed  to  criminate 
innocent  persons  may  be  adduced,  and  it  will  furnish 
an  illustration  of  some  of  the  evidence  to  which 
Clarendon  alluded.  William  Kiffin  was  a  rich  London 
merchant,  and  a  famous  Baptist  preacher.  Whilst  held 
in  honour  by  his  fellow-citizens  for  commercial  integrity, 
and  by  his  fellow-religionists  for  fervent  zeal,  he  was 
the  object  of  relentless  persecution  to  the  party  now  in 
the  ascendant,  and  his  steps  were  tracked  by  informers 
with  lynx-eyed  vigilance,  and  wolfish  ferocity.  When 
other  methods  had  failed  to  bring  him  within  the  reach 
of  the  law,  one  of  the  most  abominable  schemes  which 
cunning  and    malignity  ever   contrived,   was   adopted 

*  "  At  Court  things  are  in  a  very  ill  condition,  there  being  so 
much  emulation,  poverty,  and  the  vices  of  drinking,  swearing,  and 
loose  amours,  that  I  know  not  what  will  be  the  end  of  it  but 
confusion.  And  the  clergy  so  high,  that  all  people  that  I  meet 
with  do  protest  against  their  practice."  (Pepys'  "  Diary,"  1661, 
August  31st.) 


2o8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

with  a  view  to  compass  his  ruin.  A  letter  was  posted 
at  Taunton  bearing  the  signature  of  Colonel  Basset  of 
that  town,  and  directed  to  one  Nathaniel  Crabb,  Silk- 
thrower,  in  London,  "residing  at  his  house  in  Gravel 
Lane."  The  letter  is  preserved  in  the  State  Paper 
Office.  It  is  written  in  a  spirit  of  fanaticism,  ex- 
pressing a  desire  for  the  destruction  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  Belial,  and  declaring  that  there  were 
thousands  of  "  dear  saints  "  who  were  ready  to  "  lay- 
down  their  lives  to  do  the  work  of  God."  "  We  do 
desire  you,"  it  is  said,  "  to  be  careful  to  get  into  your 
hands  powder  and  arms  ;  as  many  as  you  can  between 
this  and  Easter,  and  we  will  do  what  we  can  to  perfect 
the  work."  The  name  of  Kiffin  is  introduced,  together 
with  the  names  of  Jesse  and  Griffin,  as  conspirators  in 
the  design.  At  first  sight  the  letter  appears  genuine. 
Nothing  is  indicated  to  the  contrary  in  the  "  Calendar 
of  State  Papers."  When  I  read  it  at  first,  it  startled 
me  ;  yet  this  letter  is  a  fabrication.  An  autobiography, 
written  by  Kiffin,  is  at  hand  to  expose  the  fraud.  He 
was  summoned  before  the  Council.  The  letter  was 
read  to  him.  He  replied  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
matters  to  which  it  referred  ;  and  afterwards,  before 
the  Chief  Justice,  by  whom  he  was  examined,  he 
proceeded  to  show,  from  certain  anachronisms  in  the 
document,  that  it  must  be  a  forgery.  His  Lordship 
expressed  his  satisfaction  with  Kiffin's  defence,  assuring 
him  that  the  author  of  the  letter,  if  discovered,  should 
be  punished.* 

*  The  letter  is  dated  December  25,  1660.  Endorsed  by  Secre- 
tary Nicholas  as  received  October  9,  1661,  ("  State  Papers,  Dom., 
Charles  II.")  The  exposure  of  the  fraud  is  in  "  Remarkable  Pas- 
sages in  the  Life  of  W.  Kiffin,"  29.  In  that  age  of  sham  plots  the 
fabrication  of  letters  was  common,  of  which  Captain  Yarrington 
published  an  exposure  in  1681.     (See  Calamy's  "Abridgment," 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  209 

A  Committee  of  Lords  and  Commons  having  been 
appointed  to  report  respecting  plots,  Mr.  Waller,  on 
the  re-assembling  of  Parliament,  after  the  Christmas 
recess,  stated  that  not  less  than  160  of  the  old  Army- 
officers  were  suspected  of  being  implicated  in  treason- 
able schemes.  Some  of  the  regicides,  he  alleged,  were 
being  entertained  in  France,  Holland,  and  Germany; 
arms  were  being  bought  by  them  to  accomplish  these 
designs  ;  many  pretended  Quakers  were  riding  about 
at  night  to  the  terror  of  peaceable  subjects,  and 
seditious  preachers  were  plying  their  mischievous 
trade.*  This  report,  in  some  parts  obviously  absurd, 
was  followed  by  no  confirmatory  evidence,  although 
further  information  was  promised. 

The  day  after  the  re-assembling  of  Parliament,  in 
the  month  of  November,  the  Houses  of  Convocation 
resumed  their  deliberations.  To  facilitate  the  despatch 
of  business  in  reference  to  the  Prayer  Book,  the  Con- 
vocation of  the  province  of  York  agreed  to  unite  with 
the  Convocation  of  the  province  of  Canterbury,  by 
•means  of  proxies,  binding  themselves  to  submit  to  the 
decisions  thus  obtained.!    So  earnest  was  the  Northern 

178.)  In  the  Record  Office,  under  date,  1661,  November  i6th,  in 
a  letter  from  Sir  John  Packington  to  Sec.  Nicholas,  Yarrington 
and  Sparry  are  mentioned  as  disowning  certain  intercepted  letters. 

*  "  Commons'  Journals,"  January  loth. 

t  Though  the  Lower  House  at  York  sent  proxies  to  the  Canter- 
bury Synod,  we  find  the  members  had  some  discussion  of  their 
own.  Dr.  Samwayes,  Proctor  for  the  clergy  of  Chester  and  Rich- 
mond, proposed  some  queries,  beginning  with  the  question, 
"  Whether,  in  case  any  alterations  in  the  Liturgy  should  be  de- 
cided on,  a  pubhc  declaration  should  not  be  made,  stating  that 
the  grounds  of  such  change  are  different  from  those  pretended  by 
schismatics  ?  "  The  last  inquiries  he  suggested  were,  "  Whether 
those  who  persist  in  holding  possession  unjustly  gotten  in  the  late 
rebellion  be  meet  communicants  ?  and  whether  some  addition 
ought  not  to  be  made  to  the  Oaths  of  Supremacy  and  Allegiance 

VOL.   III.  P 


2IO  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Archbishop,  that  he  wrote  to  the  Prolocutor  of  his 
Lower  House  to  send  proxies  by  the  next  post,  and 
told  the  Registrar  of  his  diocese,  "  if  we  have  not  all 
from  you  by  the  end  of  next  week  we  are  lost."  * 
Several  clergymen  came  from  the  North  to  town,  to 
act  on  behalf  of  their  brethren.  The  two  provinces 
thus  co-operating,  the  business  of  revising  the  Prayer 
Book  rapidly  proceeded.  Upon  the  loth  of  October, 
the  King  had  written  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
directing  His  Grace,  with  the  other  Bishops  and  clergy, 
to  discharge  that  duty ;  f  and,  probably,  before  Convo- 
cation met  in  November,  the  Bishops  had  begun  to 
prepare  for  the  task,  although  there  were  differences  of 
opinion  amongst  them ;  for,  whilst  some  pressed  for 
alterations  such  as  might  "  silence  scruples  and  satisfy 
claims,"  others  were  for  adopting  the  Prayer  Book  as  it 
stood. 

Before  describing  the  alterations  which  were  now 
made,  it  is  proper  to  give,  at  least,  a  slight  sketch  of 
the  history  of  the  volume.  The  Middle  Ages  had  no 
Act  of  Uniformity.  There  were  several  rituals,  called 
Uses,  of  York,  Hereford,  Exeter,  Lincoln,  and  other 
dioceses.  These  Uses,  which  did  not  materially  differ 
from  each  other,  gave  place  after  the  eleventh  century, 
especially  in  the  South  of  England,  to  that  of  Sarum  ; 
Osmund,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  having  about  the  year 
1085,  bestowed  great  pains  upon  the  revision  of  the 
ecclesiastical  offices  in  his   Church.     The  Missal  and 

excluding  all  evasions  ? "  The  spirit  of  the  proposals  and  the 
temper  of  some  in  the  Northern  Convocation  may  be  easily  in- 
ferred from  these  specimens.     (Joyce's  "  Sacred  Synods,"  712). 

*  Royal  letters  were  issued  to  the  province  of  York  relative  to 
reviewing  the  Prayer  Book. 

t  "State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  Vol.  XLIII.  "Entry 
Book,"  VI.  p.  7. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  211 

Breviary  contained  in  Osmund's  revision  of  the  English 
mediaeval  formularies,  constitute  the  basis  and  indeed, 
the  substance  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.*  The 
first  reformed  Liturgy  for  the  use  of  the  Protestant 
Church  in  England  was  set  forth  under  Edward  VI., 
in  the  year  1549.  A  second,  which  showed  a  further 
advance  on  the  side  of  the  Reformation,  appeared  in 
1552.  A  primer,  or  book  of  private  prayer,  containing 
the  catechism,  with  collects  and  other  forms  of  secret 
devotions,  was  published  in  1553.  Elizabeth's  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  belongs  to  the  year  1559  ;  and  after- 
wards, at  different  times,  came  particular  forms  of 
devotion,  prepared  for  particular  seasons  and  circum- 
.stances.  The  Prayer  Book  of  1559  underwent  some 
alterations  at  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of 
James  I.,  after  the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  but 
they  were  very  slight,  and  were  simply  called  "  Expla- 
nations." The  Book  prepared  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
thus  altered,  was  that  which  the  Convocation  of  1661-62 
had  to  revise.  Perhaps  I  shall  best  succeed  in  giving 
with  brevity  some  idea  of  the  origin  of  the  Common 
Prayer,  and  other  offices  of  the  Church  of  England,  if  I 
take  the  Morning  Service,  the  Communion,  and  the 
Order  for  performing  Baptism,  as  they  were  found  in 
the  Book  used  before  the  revision  under  Charles  II., 
and  point  out,  in  a  general  way,  the  sources  from  which 
those  forms  were  derived. 

Morning  prayer  is  in  the  main  drawn  from  the 
Matins,    Lauds,    and    Prime   of  the    Sarum    Breviary. 

*  Palmer  says,  "  Origines,  Lit.,"  I.,  p.  vi.  preface,  "  The  great 
majority  of  our  formularies  are  actually  translated  from  Latin  and 
Greek  rituals,  which  have  been  used  for  at  least  fourteen  or  fifteen 
hundred  years  in  the  Christian  Church  ;  and  there  is  scarcely  a 
portion  of  our  Prayer  Book  which  cannot  in  some  way  be  traced 
to  ancient  offices." 


212  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

That  which  may  be  called  the  introduction,  extending 
from  the  opening  sentence  to  the  end  of  the  Absolution, 
was  a  new  feature  in  the  Prayer  Book  of  1552.  The 
materials  of  it  may  be  found  in  mediaeval  Lent  services, 
the  old  Office  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  and  certain 
portions  of  a  homily  by  Pope  Leo.  Some  have  sup- 
posed that  some  hints  for  this  introduction  were 
gathered  from  the  reformed  Strasburg  Liturgy,  pub- 
lished by  Pollanus  (or  Pullain).*  The  idea  embodied 
was  that  of  substituting  public  confession,  awakened 
by  the  reading  of  Holy  Scripture,  for  private  confession 
made  to  a  priest ;  and,  on  the  same  principle,  the 
using  of  a  public  form  of  absolution  for  a  secret  one. 
The  object  was  to  make  that  congregational  and 
common  which  had  previously  been  individual  and 
private. 

The  second  portion  or  main  substance  of  the  Morn- 
ing Service,  from  the  Lord's  Prayer  to  the  three 
collects,  is  derived  obviously  from  different  sources. 
The  Versicles  are  taken  from  the  Sarum  Use,  and 
other  old  offices.  The  version  of  the  Psalter  is  that 
of  Cranmer's  Bible,  1539.  The  Lessons  were  substi- 
tuted for  the  numerous,  but  brief  Scripture  sections  of 
the  Breviary,  the  Apocrypha  being  occasionally  used. 
The  Te  Deum  is  an  old  canticle  of  Gallic  origin  ;  the 
Benedicite  is  the  Song  of  the  Three  Children,  a  Greek 
addition  to  the  third  chapter  of  Daniel ;  the  Apostles' 
Creed  is  taken  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  office  of  Prime ; 
and,    as    to    the   other    creeds,    I    may    add,    that    the 

*  He  had  succeeded  Calvin  as  pastor  at  Strasburg,  and  was 
obliged  afterwards  to  seek  refuge  in  England  with  some  of  his 
flock.  They  settled  at  Glastonbury  and  turned  a  part  of  the 
Abbey  into  a  worsted  manufactory,  by  grant  from  the  Duke  of 
Somerset.  In  1552,  Pullain  published  an  order  of  service  in 
Latin,  and  dedicated  it  to  Edward  VI. 


1661.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  213 

Nicene  was  sung  at  Mass,  after  the  Gallican  Use  ;  the 
Athanasian  was  sung  in  the  Matin  offices. 

The  Litany  may  be  regarded  as  a  distinct  service. 
It  is  a  very  old  form  of  devotion,  differing  somewhat  in 
different  countries.  The  Invocation  of  Saints  was  re- 
moved by  the  Reformers  ;  and  in  the  compilation  of  its 
numerous  sentences,  along  with  the  Sarum  ritual,  the 
"  Consultation  "  of  Hermann,  the  reforming  Archbishop 
of  Cologne  (1543),  was  extensively  employed.*  The 
collects  and  short  prayers  come  from  various  sources  ; 
many  of  them  from  the  "  Sacramentary  "  of  Gregory, 
and  some  from  that  of  Gelasius  ;  others  were  drawn 
from  ancient  models,  but  much  altered  ;  several  were 
new.  The  few  Occasional  Prayers  in  the  books  of 
1552  and  1559  were,  like  those  added  in  the  revision 
of  1661-62,  new  compositions  arising  out  of  existing 
circumstances. 

The  Communion  Service,  or  Liturgy  proper,  was 
derived  from  the  Missal,  expurgated  of  course.  The 
second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward,  in  that  respect,  was  a 
decided  improvement  on  the  first.  It  omits  even  an 
implied  oblation  of  the  consecrated  elements,  and  simply 
expresses  the  oblation  of  the  zvorshippers,  the  difference 
of  oblation  being  one  grand  difference  between  the 
Romish  and  Protestant  Eucharist.  The  second  Book 
also  omits  the  commemoration  of  "  the  most  blessed 

*  The  title  of  this  book  is  very  extended.  It  was  first  published 
in  German.  The  Latin  copy,  a  very  fine  one,  used  by  Cranmer, 
printed  1555,  is  in  the  Library  of  Chichester  Cathedral.  An 
English  translation,  printed  1547,  runs  thus:  "A  simple  and 
religious  consultation  of  us,  Hermann,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  and  Prince  Elector,  etc."  Hermann  was  as- 
sisted in  his  book  by  Melancthon  and  Bucer,  who  largely  used  in 
their  contributions,  Luther's  service  for  Brandenburg  and  Nurem- 
berg ;  and  in  Hermann's  book  may  be  found  the  ground-work  of 
the  forty-two  Articles  contained  in  Edward's  second  Prayer  Book. 


214  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Virgin  Mar>',"  with  the  Patriarchs,  Prophets,  Apostles, 
and  Martyrs,  contained  in  the  first.  Other  alterations 
were  made  of  a  decidedly  Protestant  character  in  the 
time  of  Edward.  The  Prayer  Book  of  1559  indicates 
certain  retrograde  changes.  The  omission  of  the 
thoroughly  Protestant  declaration  respecting  the  Lord's 
Supper  in  the  Book  of  1552,  is  very  significant.  It 
may  be  added,  however,  that  Bishops  Grindal  and 
Home,  when  writing  to  Bullinger  and  Gaulter,  assured 
them  that  the  declaration  "  continued  to  be  most 
diligently  declared,  published  and  impressed  upon  the 
people."  * 

The  Baptismal  Service  was  founded  upon  formularies, 
priestly  and  pontificial,  in  the  Sarum  offices.  Certain 
idle  ceremonies  were  omitted,  but  the  order  of  making 
catechumens,  the  blessing  of  the  font,  and  the  form  of 
baptizing,  as  constituted  in  the  mediaeval  Church,  were 
adopted  by  the  Reformers.  There  are  also  in  the 
service  plain  traces  of  the  influence  of  Bucer  and 
Melancthon,  through  Hermann's  "  Consultation."  The 
first  prayer  was  originally  composed  by  Luther.  The 
thanksgiving  after  the  rite  is  a  much  stronger  expression 
of  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  than  the 
ancient  Gallic  form  of  words  from  which  it  seems  to  be 
derived.! 

These  imperfect  notices  show  how  carefully  the  Re- 
formers retained  what  they  considered  most  precious  in 

*  See  King  Edward's  "  Liturgies  "  (Parker  Society),  89  and 
280  ;  also  compare  p.  283,  and  Elizabeth's  "  Liturgies  "  (Parker 
Society),  p.  198. 

I  have  adopted  Procter's  "  History  "  as  an  authority  throughout. 

t  The  old  Gallic  form  ran  thus  :  "  Domine  Deus  Omnipotens, 
famulos  tuos,  quos  jussisti  renasci  ex  aqua  et  Spiritu  Sancto,  con- 
serva  in  eis  baptismum  sanctum  quod  acceperunt,"  etc.  (Palmer, 
IL  195.) 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  215 

the  ancient  records  of  Christian  devotion  ;  how  rever- 
ently they  looked  on  words  which  had  been  vehicles 
for  ages,  of  the  service  of  song,  and  the  offering  of 
prayer.  This  conservative  element,  connected  with  a 
prudential  policy  lest  offence  should  be  given  to  semi- 
Protestants,  when  it  could  by  any  means  be  avoided, 
appears  to  many  an  admirer  of  the  Liturgy  in  the 
present  day  to  have  been  a  snare,  betraying  the  com- 
pilers into  the  retention  of  some  things  which  marred 
the  beauty  of  their  work,  and  really  caused  it  to  narrow 
"  the  Communion  of  Saints  "  in  the  kingdom  of  Eng- 
land. Others  think  far  otherwise.  For  my  own  part 
I  would  say  that — as  the  sources  whence  the  Book  was 
compiled  are  so  numerous  and  so  ancient,  belonging  to 
Christendom  in  the  remotest  times,  as  there  is  in  it  so 
little  that  is  really  original,  so  little  that  belongs  to  the 
Reformed  Episcopal  Church  in  England,  any  more 
than  to  other  Churches  constrained  by  conscience  to 
separate  from  Rome — the  bulk  of  what  the  Book  con- 
tains, including  all  that  is  most  beautiful  and  noble, 
— like  hymns  which,  by  whomsoever  written,  are  sung  in 
Churches  of  every  name — ought  to  be  regarded  as  the 
rightful  inheritance  of  any  who  believe  in  the  essential 
unity  of  Christ's  Catholic  Church,  and  can  sympathize 
in  the  devotions  of  a  Chrysostom,  a  Hilary,  and  an 
Ambrose. 

Such  was  the  Book  which  Convocation  had  now 
to  examine  and  revise,  in  connection  with  necessities 
which  had  been  felt  ever  since  the  Reformation,  and 
which  had  greatly  increased  during  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  Upper  House  appointed  on  the  21st  of 
November,  a  Committee  consisting  of  the  Bishops  of 
Durham,  Ely,  Oxford,  Rochester,  Sarum,  Worcester, 
Lincoln,   and    Gloucester,    most    of    whom   had   been 


2i6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Commissioners  at  the  Savoy,  to  meet  in  the  palace 
of  the  Bishop  of  Ely  in  Hatton  Garden,  at  five  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  of  every  day,  except  Sunday,  until 
their  work  was  finished.  But  when  they  had  taken 
their  walk  as  the  evening  drew  in,  they  really  found 
little  to  do.  Their  work  had  been  anticipated  ;  materials 
were  ready  to  hand.  The  Prayer  Book  had  been 
carefully  studied  and  revised  for  a  long  time,  by 
eminent  Anglicans.  MS.  notes  existed  of  great  value, 
made  or  collected  by  Bishop  Overall,  Bishop  Andrewes, 
and  Bishop  Cosin.*  Those  by  the  last,  as  we  shall 
see,  were  largely  used. 

That  the  Bishops  when  they  met  had  much  of  what 
they  needed  provided  for  them  may  be  concluded  from 
the  fact  that,  on  the  23rd  of  November,  only  the  second 
day  after  the  appointment  of  the  Committee,  a  portion 
of  the  corrected  copy  was  delivered  to  the  Prolocutor 
of  the  Lower  House.f  Previous  labours  had  almost 
superseded  a  discharge  of  the  duties  laid  upon  the 
newly  appointed  Committee. J  From  day  to  day  pro- 
gress was  made,  until,  within  a  month,  the  work  was 
completed. 

Forms  of  prayer  which  had  been  adopted  by  Con- 
vocation in  the  summer,  were  now  inserted  in  the 
volume.  So  also  were  the  General  Thanksgiving, 
drawn  up  by  Dr.  Reynolds,  and  the  Prayer  for  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men,  composed   by  Dr.   Gunning.§ 

*  See  Joyce's  "  Sacred  Synods,"  714. 

t  Cardwell's  "  Synodalia,"  653.  %  "  Conferences,"  371, 

§  "  In  its  original  shape  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  longer,  and 
to  have  brought  into  one  prayer  the  petitions  for  the  King,  Royal 
Family,  Clergy,  etc.,  which  are  scattered  through  several  collects. 
The  Convocation,  however,  retained  the  collects,  and  therefore 
threw  out  the  corresponding  clauses  in  this  general  prayer  with- 
out altering  the  woxdi  finally^  which  seems  to  be  needlessly  intro- 
duced in  so  short  a  form."     (Procter,  262.) 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  217 

New  collects  were  introduced,  with  occasional  prayers 
in  the  visitation  of  the  sick.*  About  600  alterations 
were  made  in  the  body  of  the  volume.  Some  of  these 
were  in  accordance  with  suggestions  made  by  the 
Puritans  at  the  Savoy  Conference,  but  they  did  not 
amount  to  important  concessions.  Others  of  them 
were  adapted  to  render  the  Prayer  Book  more  distaste- 
ful to  that  party  than  before.  The  word  Priest  was 
substituted  for  the  word  Minister  in  the  Absolution  ; 
instead  of  Bishops,  Pastors,  and  Ministers,  were  intro- 
duced Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons ;  and  the  words 
rebellion  and  schism  were  added  to  the  petition  against 
sedition  ;  but  many  of  the  alterations  are  unconnected 
with  any  theological  or  ecclesiastical  controversy.  There 
is  a  volume  amongst  the  Tenison  MSS.,  Lambeth, 
which  contains  "  The  Dififerences  of  the  Old  Common 
Prayer  Book  and  the  New,"  being  a  copy  of  the  edition 
printed  in  1663,  with  the  variations  written  upon  the 
margins  and  upon  the  paper  interleaved  ;  at  the  be- 
ginning, are  the  words,  "  This  is  the  publique  Liturgy 
revised  and  rectified.  A*^  1662."  The  notes  which 
had  been  collected  or  composed  by  Cosin  seem  to 
have  been  largely  used  throughout  the  revision. f 

The  Bishops  came  to  an  unanimous  vote  in  favour 
of  a  form  of  prayer  before  and  after  sermon  ;  thus 
cutting  off  all  liberty  to  introduce  extempore  devotion, 
and  extinguishing  one  of  the  last  hopes  of  the  Puritan 
party  :  but  this  design  was  afterwards  dropped  "  upon 
prudential  reasons."  |  Pell,  assisted  by  Sancroft,  re- 
vised  the  Calendar.      Pell  was   a   singular   character, 

*  The  services  for  January  30th,  and  May  29th,  were  not  in 
the  Book  sent  to  Parliament. 

t  See  remarks  of  editor  in  Cosin's  "  Works,"  V.,  p.  xxi. 
X  Sess.  XL.     Kennet,  576. 


21 8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

with  a  continental  reputation,  and  had  been  sent  by 
Cromwell  as  envoy  to  the  Protestant  Swiss  Cantons. 
After  his  return  to  England,  at  the  Restoration,  he 
took  Holy  Orders  and  became  Chaplain  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  A  deanery  was  thought  of  for 
the  illustrious  scholar,  "  but  being  not  a  person  of 
activity,  as  others  who  mind  not  learning  are,  could 
never  rise  higher  than  a  Rector.  The  truth  is,  he  was 
a  shiftless  man  as  to  worldly  affairs,  and  his  tenants 
and  relations  dealt  so  unkindly  by  him,  that  they 
cozened  him  of  the  profits  of  his  parsonage  and  kept 
him  so  indigent,  that  he  wanted  necessaries,  even  paper 
and  ink  to  his  dying  day."  Pell  was  "  once  or  twice 
cast  into  prison  for  debt,"  and  was  at  last  buried  by 
charity.*  With  the  Calendar  was  connected  the  ar- 
rangement of  daily  lessons.  Should  the  Apocrypha 
be  read  as  before  in  the  Church  Service  }  The  Puritans 
deemed  it  a  profanation  to  read  uninspired  and,  in 
some  respects,  superstitious  books,  as  if  they  formed 
part  of  Holy  Scripture.  A  severe  battle  seems  to  have 
been  fought  on  this  vital  question.  One  can  imagine 
how  feelings  would  be  excited  to  the  highest  pitch, 
how  the  question  would  be  canvassed  in  different 
circles,  how  people  would  watch  for  tidings  of  the 
debate,  how  the  History  of  Susanna  and  the  Elders 
would  be  like  a  standard  wrestled  for  in  the  tug  of 
war  ;  and  very  probable  is  Andrew  Marvell's  story  of 
a  jolly  doctor,  coming  out  with  a  face  full  of  joy, 
shouting  "  We  have  carried  it  for  Bel  and  the  Dragon !"  f 
We  learn  that  during  the  later  Sessions  of  the  Con- 
vocation, Herbert  Thorndike  "  constantly  attended  and 
had  a  hand   more  than  ordinary  in  the  business,"  a 

*  Kennet's  "  Register,"  575. 

t  "The  Rehearsal  Transposed,"  500. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  219 

piece  of  information  which  rests  upon  the  authority  of 
Sancroft.  Both  Bancroft  and  his  friend  were  in  favour 
of  such  alterations  as  have  been  sometimes  called 
Laudian,  and  they  were  anxious  (especially  the  latter 
of  these  Divines)  to  proceed  further  in  that  direction. 
Thorndike,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  regarded  as 
imperfections  the  omission  of  all  intercession  for  de- 
parted souls,  and  of  the  prayer  for  the  descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  the  elements  used  at  the  communion.* 
Perhaps  some  others  sympathized  with  these  eminent 
persons  in  this  respect,  but  they  found  their  tendencies 
checked  by  the  decided  Protestantism  of  the  larger 
portion  of  the  clergy,  and  by  a  regard  to  expediency 
in  some  who  had  no  decided  convictions  on  the 
subject. 

Upon  the  19th  of  December — a  day  on  which  com- 
plaints were  made  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  the  effect 
that  many  disaffected  persons,  both  on  political  and 
ecclesiastical  grounds,  existed  in  the  realm — the  Upper 
House  committed  the  preparing  of  a  form  of  subscrip- 
tion to  Cosin  and  Henchman,  Bishops  of  Durham  and 
Salisbury,  who,  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty,  were  to 
receive  assistance  from  Drs.  Chaworth  and  Burrett. 
This  small  Committee  met  the  same  afternoon,  when 
they  came  to  an  agreement  respecting  the  mode  of 
expressing  approval  of  the  revised  formularies  of  the 
Church  of  England. t  Convocation  has  been  charged 
with  indecent  haste  in  the  management  of  this  whole 
business.  I  can  scarcely  wonder  at  such  a  charge, 
since  a  similar  accusation  had  been  brought  against  the 

*  Thorndike's  "Works,"  V^I.  233-235. 

t  The  Bishops'  form  was  :  "  Unanimi  assensu  et  consensu  in 
banc  formam  redegimus,  recepimus  et  approbavimus,  eidemque 
subscripsimus."     (Kennet,  584.) 


220  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Presbyterians  at  the  Savoy  ;  but  it  should  be  stated 
that  Convocation  met  for  more  than  twenty  days, 
sometimes  twice  a  day,  to  discuss  these  details.  Still, 
six  hundred  alterations  could  scarcely  have  been 
properly  considered  by  two  large  bodies  of  men  in 
the  time  actually  devoted  to  them  :  and  looking  at 
the  matter  as  one  so  much  affecting  their  own  con- 
sciences, and  the  consciences  of  all  clergymen  in  future 
time,  many  will  regard  the  decision  on  the  part  of 
Convocation  as  too  hasty.  As  it  regards  preparing 
the  alterations,  I  see  no  ground  on  which  to  charge 
with  want  of  care  the  persons  who  performed  that 
duty.*  There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any 
discussion  in  Convocation  touching  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles.  No  alterations  in  them  were  proposed  by 
the  Anglican  party,  although  the  Articles  have  always 
been  considered  as  representing  the  more  thoroughly 
Protestant  or  Evangelical  side  of  the  Church  for- 
mularies. 

The  two  Houses  of  Convocation  adopted  and  sub- 
scribed the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  on  the  20th  of 
December.f  As  the  Act  of  Uniformity  had  not  then 
been  passed,  as  this  subscription  was  intended  to 
prepare  for  it,  and  as  no  Act  of  Parliament  existed  at 
the  time  requiring  subscription,  it  may  be  instructive 
and  useful  to  notice  the  grounds  on  which  this  sub- 

*  A  statement  of  the  object  and  nature  of  the  alterations  as 
given  by  the  revisers  themselves,  may  be  found  in  the  preface  to 
the  Prayer  Book  of  1662. 

t  My  friend  Dr.  Swainson,  since  this  History  was  first  pub- 
lished, has  remarked  in  his  pamphlet  entitled  "  Parhamentary 
History  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,"  "that  it  is  difficult  to  beheve 
that  the  whole  volume  was  fairly  written  out  between  the  13th  of 
December,  when  the  order  was  given,  and  the  twentieth,  when 
the  subscriptions  were  annexed."  He  thinks  "  the  book  may  have 
been  subscribed,  as  we  say,  in  faith." 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  221 

scription  took  place.  This  fact  is  curious  that,  although 
the  practice  of  subscribing  to  a  creed  began  so  early  as 
the  Council  of  Nicaea,  neither  the  clergy  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  nor  the  clergy  of  the  Greek  Church 
have  ever  been  required,  or  are  now  required,  by  any 
of  their  laws,  so  to  express  their  belief  as  to  doctrine 
and  their  resolution  as  to  practice.  The  enforcement 
of  subscription  upon  Protestant  ministers  commenced 
soon  after  the  Reformation  ;  and,  in  some  cases,  the 
extent  of  belief  which  it  was  intended  to  cover  seems 
wide  indeed  ;  for  in  the  Duchy  of  Brunswick,  Duke 
Julius  required  from  clergymen,  from  professors,  and 
from  magistrates,  "a  subscription  to  all  and  every- 
thing contained  in  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  in  the 
apology  for  the  Confession,  in  the  Smalcaldic  Articles, 
in  all  the  works  of  Luther,  and  in  all  the  works  of 
Chemnitz."  *  The  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England 
were  not  subscribed  generally  until  the  twelfth  year  of 
the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  subscription  was 
ordered  for  the  special  purpose  of  checking  the  admis- 
sion of  Papists  into  the  English  Church,  and  also  the 
admission  of  those  who  had  taken  orders  in  the  foreign 
Reformed  Churches.  The  assent  required  was  confined 
to  those  Articles  "  which  only  concern  the  Confession 
of  the  true  Christian  faith  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
Sacraments."  f  The  Earl  of  Leicester  introduced  to 
the  University  of  Oxford,  in  1581,  subscription  to  the 
Articles,  without  any  precise  form  of  words,  to  be 
required  from  all  undergraduates  upon  matriculation, 
and  from  all  who  took  degrees.  The  extending  of  the 
act  of  subscription  to  the  entire  Liturgy  was  a  step  not 
taken  until  1603,  when,  by  the  canons  of  Convocation 

*  Stanley's  "  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London,''  1863. 

t  Strype's  "Annals  of  the  Reformation,"  Vol.  IL,  Pt.  L  105. 


222  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

of  that  year,  this  form  of  assent  came  to  be  required  of 
all  the  clergy.  Hence  it  appears  to  have  been  in  com- 
pliance with  a  canon  law  enacted  by  their  predecessors, 
and  not  in  compliance  with  any  statute  law,  that  the 
members  of  Convocation,  in  the  year  1661,  signed  the 
declaration  of  assent  and  consent  to  the  contents  of  the 
Prayer  Book. 

After  the  Revision  had  been  completed,  a  copy  of 
the  Bill  then  pending  in  Parliament  was  read  and 
examined  in  the  Upper  House  of  Convocation  upon 
the  29th  of  January.  Upon  the  i8th  of  February,  Dr. 
Barwick  was  chosen  Prolocutor  in  the  room  of  Dr. 
Feme,  promoted  to  the  see  of  Chester.  The  Bishops 
deputed  their  brethren  of  St.  Asaph,  Carlisle,  and 
Chester,  on  the  5th  of  March,  with  the  concurrence 
of  the  Lower  House,  to  revise  alterations  in  the  Book 
during  its  progress  through  Parliament,  a  resolution 
which  seems  to  have  had  a  prospective  reference  to 
alterations  anticipated  as  possible,  but  which  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  ever  attempted  ;  for  it  is  known, 
as  will  be  hereafter  seen,  that  none  were  made  by  the 
Commons,  and  it  may  be  inferred  that  none  were  made 
by  the  Lords.  Upon  the  8th  of  March  Convocation 
directed  Bancroft,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, to  superintend  the  printing  of  the  Book  ;  and 
Mr.  Scattergood  and  Mr.  Dillingham  to  correct  the 
proofs.  Upon  the  22nd  of  the  same  month  the  subject 
of  a  special  form  for  the  consecration  of  churches  came 
under  discussion.* 

Convocation    accomplished    no    alterations    in    the 
canons,  though  it  took  up  the  subject  repeatedly  ;  nor 
did  it  determine  anything  with  regard  to  Church  dis- 
cipline.    The  whole  of  this  question  had  remained  in 
*  "  Synodalia,"  668. 


1661.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  223 

an  unsettled  state  ever  since  the  Reformation.  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  (1534),  a  Commission  had  been 
appointed  by  statute  to  revise  the  ecclesiastical  laws ; 
and  enactments  respecting  them  nearly  up  to  the  time 
of  the  death  of  that  monarch  were  repealed.  In  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.  (1551),  a  renewed  Commission 
for  the  same  purpose  was  statutably  instituted  ;  and 
the  labours  of  the  Commissioners  issued  in  the  well- 
known  book,  entitled  "  Reformatio  legum  Ecclesiasti- 
carum,"  a  code  strongly  imbued  with  the  intolerance 
of  the  age.*  But  it  never  received  the  Royal  sanction, 
it  never  became  legally  binding.  Another  abortive 
attempt  was  made  in  Convocation  (1603),  when  James  L 
occupied  the  throne  ;  and  canons  were  passed  declaring 
the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience,  and  denouncing  a 
series  of  opposite  opinions.f  Happily  for  the  credit  of 
the  Church  and  the  peace  of  the  realm,  this,  like  the 
previous  scheme  of  ecclesiastical  law,  failed  to  obtain 
constitutional  sanction.  The  last  endeavour  at  making 
canons  (1640)  hastened  the  crisis  of  the  Civil  Wars. 
There  was  little  then  to  encourage  Convocation  to 
proceed  with  the  business  of  Church  discipline,  and, 
therefore,  notwithstanding  the  earnestness  of  Thorndike 
in  promoting  it — who  considered  that  a  Church  which 
could  not  excommunicate  was  no  Church — the  subject 
was  allowed  to  drop. 

The  month  of  December,  which  saw  the  revisionary 

*  The  book  was  republished  in  1850,  by  Cardwell.  It  reflects 
the  doctrinal  opinions  of  the  period,  and  is  most  decidedly  Cal- 
vinistic  (p.  21).  It  subjects  heretics,  including  persons  not  be- 
lieving in  predestination,  to  the  punishment  of  the  civil  magistrate 
— "ad  extremum  ad  civiles  magistratus  ablegetur  puniendus," 
(P-  25.) 

t  PubHshed  in  1690,  under  the  title  of  "Bishop  Overall's  Con- 
vocation Book."  It  was  printed  from  a  copy  belonging  to 
Overall. 


224  RELIGION  m  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

labours  of  Convocation  completed,  also  witnessed  within 
the  walls  of  Westminster  Abbey  two  remarkable 
solemnities  connected  with  the  revival  of  Episcopacy. 
Upon  the  12th  of  December,  Sharp,  Archbishop  of  St. 
Andrew's,  Fairfull,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  Leighton, 
Bishop  of  Dunblaine,  and  Hamilton,  Bishop  of  Gallo- 
way, were  consecrated  by  the  Bishops  of  London  and 
Worcester ;  and  upon  the  20th,  the  day  when  the 
Prayer  Book  was  being  subscribed  by  the  members  of 
the  two  Houses  of  Convocation,  the  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, brother  to  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  was  buried,  a 
silver  mitre,  with  his  Episcopal  robes,  being  borne  by 
the  Herald  before  the  hearse,  which  was  followed  by 
the  Duke,  by  several  noblemen,  and  by  all  the 
Bishops.* 

The  Bishops,  this  year,  had  other  business  besides 
that  of  Convocation  to  occupy  time,  and  to  create 
anxiety.  Prior  to  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity, their  dioceses  could  not  but  be  in  a  state  of 
confusion.  Many  clergymen  who  were  disaffected  to 
the  restored  system  and  its  Episcopal  administrators, 
retained  incumbencies,  and  gave  considerable  trouble 
to  the  ecclesiastical  superiors.  It  was  as  if,  after  the 
suppression  of  a  long-continued  and  successful  mutiny, 
and  the  re-instatement  of  old  officers  in  command,  a 
number  of  soldiers  in  the  ranks,  or  of  sailors  on  board 
ship,  should  still  remain  opposed  to  the  colonel  or  the 
captain,  t 

As  there  had  been  only  an  adjournment,  and  not  a 
prorogation  in  the  summer  of  1661,  the  Bill  of  Uni- 

*  Evelyn's  "  Diary." 

t  A  letter  by  Henchman,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  "  State  Papers, 
Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1661,  October  17th,  gives  a  long  account  of 
the  trouble  and  vexation  he  met  with  in  striving  to  bring  his 
diocese  into  order. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  225 

formity,  carried  by  the  Commons  before  that  period, 
remained  eHgible  for  consideration  from  the  Lords  in 
the  following  January.  They  read  the  Bill  a  first  time, 
on  the  14th,  the  Spiritual  Peers  before  that  date  having 
taken  their  seats,  and  the  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book 
by  Convocation  having  also  been  completed.  The  Bill 
was  read  a  second  time,  and  referred  upon  the  17th  of 
January  to  a  Select  Committee.  Upon  the  13th  of 
February,  this  Committee  requested  to  know  whether 
they  should  proceed  with  the  old  Prayer  Book  sent  up 
to  them  by  the  Commons,  or  wait  for  the  copy  revised 
by  Convocation.  That  copy  had  been  handed  to  the 
King  for  examination,  a  thing  not  suited  to  his  taste, 
but  whether  teased  to  the  performance  of  a  task,  or 
taking  the  whole  matter  on  trust,  it  is  certain,  that 
before  the  end  of  the  month  of  February,  he  formally 
sanctioned  the  alterations.*  The  volume  having  been, 
by  the  two  Archbishops,  presented  to  the  Lords,  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland  proposed  that  the  old  Prayer 
Book  should  be  adopted,  in  connection  with  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Act  of  Uniformity,  a  proposition  which, 
however  feasible  at  an  earlier  period,  came  now  too 
late. 

The  slow  progress  made  by  the  Upper  had  dis- 
satisfied the  Lower  House,  and  complaints  from  that 
quarter  had  reached  the  Royal  ears  ;  hence,  when  the 
King  gave  audience  to  the  Commons  at  Whitehall,  at 
the  beginning  of  March,  respecting  his  revenues,  he, 
having  before  that  time  sent  the  revised  Prayer  Book 
to  the  Peers,  could  boldly  speak  as  follows  :  "I  hear  you 

*  "State  Papers,  Entrv  Book,"  February  24th.  See  also 
"  Journals  "  under  dates.  In  the  "  Privy  Council  Minutes,"  under 
date  of  February  24th,  Mr.  Perry  says  in  a  letter  to  the  Times, 
there  is  an  entry  to  the  effect  that  the  book  and  amendments  were 
read  and  approved. 

VOL.   III.  Q 


226  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

are  very  zealous  for  the  Church,  and  very  solicitous, 
and  even  jealous,  that  there  is  not  expedition  enough 
used  in  that  affair  ;  I  thank  you  for  it,  since,  I  presume, 
it  proceeds  from  a  good  root  of  piety  and  devotion  ; 
but  I  must  tell  you  I  have  the  worst  luck  in  the  world, 
if,  after  all  the  reproaches  of  being  a  Papist,  whilst  I 
was  abroad,  I  am  suspected  of  being  a  Presbyterian 
now  I  am  come  home."*  This  strange  kind  of  talk 
was  followed  by  a  declaration  of  zeal  for  the  interests 
of  the  Church  of  England.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  Lord  Wharton,  and  other  Peers, 
were  added  to  the  Committee  of  the  Upper  House  for 
considering  the  contents  of  the  Bill.t  It  is  remarkable 
that  it  included  a  decided  Nonconformist  in  Lord 
Wharton,  one  still  favourable  to  Nonconformity  in  the 
Earl  of  Manchester,  and  two  Bishops  who  had  been 
Presbyterians,  Gauden,  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,|  and 
Reynolds,  Bishop  of  Norwich, — to  say  nothing  of  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle,  who  had  been  identified  both  with 
Independents  and  with  Presbyterians.  These  persons 
formed  but  a  small  party  in  a  Committee  which 
consisted  altogether  of  above  thirty  members  ;  and 
they  formed  but  a  feeble  minority  compared  with  such 
powerful  men  as  Sheldon,  Bishop  of  London,  Cosin, 
Bishop  of  Durham,  Morley,  then  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
and  Sanderson,  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  Was  the  opposition 
of  the  small  minority  violentl)^  overborne  .?  or  did  the 
small  minority  tamely  submit }  Wharton  was  the  only 
man  likely  to  make  much  resistance.     On  the  5th  of 

*  "Journals,"  March  3,  1662. 

t  "  Lords'  Journals,"  February  27th,  March  5th,  6th,  and  7th. 

X  There  is  a  letter  from  Gauden,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  to  the  Earl 
of  Bristol  concerning  charity  to  Quakers,  and  indulgence  to  all 
sober  Dissenters,  dated  May  Day,  1662,  amongst  the  "Gibson 
MSS.,"  Vol.  II.  177.     Lambeth  Library. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  227 

March  it  was  reported  to  Convocation  that  certain 
"  emendations  or  alterations  "  had  been  made  by  "  the 
House  of  Parliament,"  which  would  seem  to  refer  to 
what  was  done  in  this  Committee;  in  them  Convocation 
concurred,  and  the  Earl  of  Bridgwater  also  reported  to 
the  Lords  on  the  13th,  divers  alterations,  stating  that 
they  related  to  the  Book  recommended  by  the  King 
and  not  to  the  Book  brought  up  from  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  alterations  were  read  before  reading 
the  amendments  to  the  Bill.  Two  days  after  the  report 
had  been  delivered,  the  business  was  completed  ;  the 
Peers  had  caught  the  spirit  of  Convocation,  and,  by 
their  haste  now,  had  made  up  for  lost  time.  Clarendon 
took  occasion  to  thank  the  Bishops  for  their  revision  of 
the  Book  in  Convocation,  and  requested  them  to  thank 
their  clerical  brethren  of  the  Lower  House.  The  pre- 
amble to  the  Bill  received  approval  upon  the  17th  of 
March,  when  the  Minister  just  mentioned  communi- 
cated a  message  from  His  Majesty,  and  read  a  proviso 
which  he  wished  to  be  inserted.  The  House,  evidently 
startled  at  the  wish,  requested  him  to  read  the  proviso 
a  second  time.  This  being  done,  the  matter  stood  over 
for  consideration  until  the  following  day.  The  Journals 
are  silent  as  to  the  nature  of  this  proviso ;  but  a 
despatch  by  De  Wiquefort,  the  Dutch  Minister,  explains 
the  matter.  Amongst  the  gossip  which  he  details  to 
his  Court — how  in  a  chest  belonging  to  Henry  Marten, 
was  found  a  memoir  by  the  French  Ambassador,  full 
of  the  praises  of  the  Commonwealth  ;  how  the  Irish 
Catholics  were  getting  into  trouble  because  they  had 
been  negotiating  with  Rome  to  the  King's  prejudice  ; 
how  they  were  forbidden  to  present  any  request ;  how 
their  agent  was  not  allowed  to  appear  at  Court ;  and 
how  the  Chancellor  had  a  strong  party  formed  against 


228  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Cuap.  VL 

him  ; — the  writer  communicates  an  important  fact, 
which  solves  the  enigma  left  by  the  Journals.  The 
Chancellor,  says  De  Wiquefort,  informed  the  Lords 
that  the  King  wanted  a  power  to  be  inserted  in  the 
Act  of  Uniformity,  enabling  him  to  relieve  clergymen 
from  an  obligation  to  wear  the  surplice  and  to  make 
the  sign  of  the  cross.*  From  this  information  it 
appears  that  Charles,  even  at  this  early  period,  aimed 
at  a  dispensing  power,  a  power  which,  before  the  close 
of  the  year,  he  eagerly  endeavoured  to  grasp.  The 
Lords,  however,  were  jealous  of  the  interference  of  the 
Crown  in  sending  such  a  message  as  had  been  delivered 
by  Clarendon  ;  and  they  questioned  whether  a  resolu- 
tion ought  not  to  be  entered  on  the  Journals  in  refer- 
ence to  it,  fearing  lest  their  privileges  might  be  en- 
dangered by  their  going  so  far  as  even  to  take  such  a 
subject  into  consideration.  The  19th  of  March  found 
the  Bill  recommitted,  including  the  Royal  proviso  and 
the  several  amendments. 

The  amendments  consisted  of  certain  additions  to 
the  preamble,  of  the  connection  with  the  Prayer  Book 
of  the  Psalms  of  David,  as  they  were  to  be  said  or 
sung  in  churches  ;  of  the  form  of  ordaining  and  con- 
secrating Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons  ;  of  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  feast  of  St.  Bartholomew  for  Michael- 
mas, as  the  time  when  the  Act  should  come  in  force  ;  f 
of  the  insertion  of  a  new  form,  according  to  that 
adopted  by  Convocation,  declaring  "  unfeigned  assent 
and  consent"  not  only  as  originally  prepared  to  the  use 
of  the  Book,  but  to  all  and  everything  it  contained  and 

*  "State  Papers,"  March  31,  1662. 

+  The  amendments  are  gathered  from  papers  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  copies  of  which  I  have  been  permitted  to  obtain  ;  and  from 
a  comparison  of  the  Journals  with  the  Act  as  pubhshed. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  229 

prescribed  ;  and  of  an  additional  form,  repudiating  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  Both  these  forms 
required  subscription.  A  further  amendment  rendered 
it  necessary,  that  every  minister  of  the  Church  of 
England  should  be  episcopally  ordained,  and  that 
licenses  from  Bishops  should  be  secured  by  all  M^ho 
undertook  the  office  of  Lecturers.*  Some  of  the 
amendments  occasioned  little  or  no  debate,  a  circum- 
stance which  appears  surprising  when  we  consider  the 
Puritan  tendencies  of  certain  Lords.  The  points  which 
chiefly  occupied  attention  were,  first,  the  requirement 
of  Episcopal  ordination  as  a  sine  qua  non ;  and, 
secondly,  the  imposition  of  the  form  which  repudiated 
the  Covenant.  The  debates  on  these  questions,  so  far 
as  they  can  be  recovered,  will  now  be  given. 

L  It  was  argued  by  some  who  retained  Puritan  sym- 
pathies, that  the  first  of  these  requirements  was  not  in 
accordance  with  what  had  "  been  the  opinion  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  that  it  would  lay  a  great 
reproach  upon  all  other  Protestant  Churches,  who  had 
no  Bishops  ;  as  if  they  had  no  ministers,  and,  conse- 
quently, were  no  Churches  :  for,  that  it  was  well  known, 
the  Church  of  England  did  not  allow  re-ordination, 
as  the  ancient  Church  never  admitted  it  ;  insomuch, 
as  if  any  priest  of  the  Church  of  Rome  renounces 
the  communion  thereof,  his  ordination  is  not  ques- 
tioned, but  he  is  as  capable  of  any  preferment  in  this 


*  "The  change  from  Michaehnas  Day,  1662,  (which  it  is  clear 
was  at  one  time  contemplated)  to  Midsummer  Day,  seems  to 
show  a  very  bitter  animus  ;  the  change  from  Midsummer  Day  to 
some  later  day — they  chose  St.  Bartholomew — was  absolutely 
necessary  from  the  delay  in  passing  the  Bill.  Either  of  these 
earlier  dates  deprived  the  outgoing  incumbent  of  his  tithe  due 
at  Michaelmas."  (Dr.  Swainson's  "  Parliamentary  Hist,  of  the 
Act.") 


230  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Church,  as  if  he  been  ordained  in  it.  And,  therefore, 
the  not  admitting  the  ministers  of  other  Protestant 
Churches,  to  have  the  same  privilege,  can  proceed  from 
no  other  ground  than  that  they  looked  not  upon 
them  as  ministers,  having  no  ordination  ;  which  is 
a  judgment  the  Church  of  England  had  not  ever 
owned,  and  that  it  would  be  very  imprudent  to  do  it 
now." 

This  argument  called  forth  replies  from  other  mem- 
bers, most  likely  from  some  of  the  Bishops — to  the 
following  effect : — "  That  the  Church  of  England  judged 
none  but  her  own  children,  nor  did  not  determine  that 
other  Protestant  Churches  were  without  ordination.  It 
is  a  thing  without  their  cognizance  ;  and  most  of  the 
learned  men  of  those  Churches  had  made  necessity  the 
chief  pillar  to  support  that  ordination  of  theirs.  That 
necessity  cannot  be  pleaded  here,  where  ordination  is 
given  according  to  the  unquestionable  practice  of  the 
Church  of  Christ ;  if  they  who  pretend  foreign  ordina- 
tion are  His  Majesty's  subjects,  they  have  no  excuse 
of  necessity,  for  they  might  in  all  times  have  received 
Episcopal  ordination  ;  and  so  they  did  upon  the  matter 
renounce  their  own  Church  ;  if  they  are  strangers,  and 
pretend  to  preferment  in  this  Church,  they  ought  to 
conform,  and  to  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  kingdom, 
which  concern  only  those  who  desire  to  live  under  the 
protection  [thereof].  For  the  argument  of  reordination, 
there  is  no  such  thing  required.  Rebaptization  is  not 
allowed  in  or  by  any  Church  ;  yet  in  all  Churches 
where  it  is  doubted,  as  it  may  be  often  with  very  good 
reason,  whether  the  person  hath  been  baptized  or  no, 
or  if  it  hath  been  baptized  by  a  midwife  or  lay  person  ; 
without  determining  the  validity  or  invalidity  of  such 
baptism,  there  is  an  hypothetical  form — '  If  thou  hast 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  231 

not  been  already  baptized,  I  do  baptize,'  etc.  So,  in 
this  case  of  ordination,  the  form  may  be  the  same — 
'  If  thou  hast  not  been  already  ordained,  then  I  do 
ordain,'  etc.  If  his  former  ordination  were  good,  this 
is  void  ;  if  the  other  was  invalid  or  defective,  he  hath 
reason  to  be  glad  that  it  be  thus  supplied."*  Such 
a  mode  of  silencing  the  scruples  of  ministers  on 
whom  the  ceremony  of  re-ordination  was  imposed, 
came  extensively  into  fashion  after  the  passing  of  the 
Act. 

II.  When  the  House  resumed  their  discussions,!  the 
point  in  consideration  was  "  the  clause  of  ministers 
declaring  against  the  Covenant"!  A  form  of  abjuring 
both  the  doctrine  of  resistance,  and  the  obligations  of 
the  Covenant,  had  been  required  by  the  Corporation 
Act.  Upon  comparing  the  words  in  that  Act  with  the 
words  in  the  Bill  of  Uniformity,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  latter  are  the  same  as  the  former,  with  the  addition 
of  two  short  clauses,  first,  "  that  I  will  conform  to  the 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  it  is  now  by  law 
established;"  and,  secondly,  that  the  Covenant  entailed 
no  obligation  "  to  endeavour  any  change  or  alteration 
of  sfovernment  in  Church  or  State."     As  this  form  of 


*  Clarendon's  "  Continuation,"  1077-1079.  f  April  6th. 

X  I  give  a  literal  copy  of  a  draft  of  amendment  found  among 
the  Papers  of  the  House  of  Lords,  connected  with  the  Act,  show- 
ing the  fruitless  attempts  made  to  modify  the  abjuration  of  the 
Covenant — 

"  I,  A.  B.,  doe  declare  That  I  hold  that  there  lyes  no  obligation  upon  mee 
or  any  other  person  from  the  oath  commonly  called  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant 

/  (otherwise  than  in  such  things  only  whereunto  I  or  any  other  person 
•d  I  (other  than  what  I  or  they  were  otherwise  legally  oblig'd  unto  before 
g  <  were  legally  and  expressly  obliged  before  the  taking  of  y^  s'^  Covenant, 
V  I    the  taking  of  the  Covenant 

\    and  that  the  same  was  in  itselfe  an  unlawfull  oath,"  &c. 


232  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  LChap.  VI. 

renouncing  the  Covenant  was  only  of  temporary  use, 
and  was  to  be  abolished  in  twenty  years,  it  ceased 
afterwards  to  receive  much  attention  ;  but,  at  first,  it 
constituted  a  chief  point  of  interest  both  to  the  up- 
holders and  opponents  of  the  Bill,  even  beyond  the 
importance  attached  to  the  form  of  subscription  and 
declaration  respecting  the  Prayer  Book.  Many  of  the 
Peers,  who  had  taken  the  Covenant,  were  not  so  much 
concerned  that  the  clergy  should  be  obliged  to  make 
this  declaration,  as  that,  when  such  a  clause  should  be 
passed  and  sanctioned,  it  might  be  inserted  in  other 
Acts  relating  to  the  functions  of  other  offices,  so  that, 
in  a  short  time,  what  was  now  only  required  of  the 
clergy  might  be  required  of  themselves.* 

The  Puritan  Peers  warmly  opposed  the  clause  as 
unnecessary,  and  as  widening  the  breach  instead  of 
closing  up  the  wounds  already  made.  Many,  they 
said,  would  believe  or  fear  that  this  clause  might  prove 
a  breach  of  the  Act  of  Indemnity,  which  had  not  only 
provided  against  indictments  and  suits  at  law  and 
penalties,  but  against  reproaches  for  what  was  past. 
As  for  conformity  to  the  Liturgy,  it  was  provided  for 
fully  in  the  former  subscription  prescribed  by  the  Bill. 
The  Covenant  contained  many  good  things,  as  defend- 
ing the  King's  person,  and  maintaining  the  Protestant 
religion  :  and  to  say  that  it  entailed  no  obligation  would 
neither  be  for  the  service  of  the  King,  nor  the  interest 
of  the  Church,  especially  since  it  was  well  known,  it 

*  A  comparison  of  Clarendon's  history  with  the  Journals  of  the 
two  Houses,  shows  that  in  almost  every  paragraph  of  his  narra- 
tion there  are  inaccuracies.  It  would  require  too  much  space  to 
point  them  out.  I  have  abridged  his  report  of  the  speeches  de- 
livered, but  with  much  misgiving  as  to  its  correctness  ;  probably, 
however,  the  general  tenor  of  the  debate  was  as  the  Chancellor 
represents,  and  in  the  arguments  for  the  Bill  perhaps  he  gives 
his  own  orations. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  233 

had  wrought  upon  the  conscience  of  many  in  the  late 
revolution.  At  any  rate,  it  was  now  dead,  all  were 
absolved  from  taking  it.  If  it  had  at  any  time  pro- 
duced any  good,  that  was  an  excuse  for  its  irregularity : 
it  could  do  no  mischief  for  the  future,  and  therefore  it 
was  time  to  bury  it  in  oblivion.  Clarendon  intimates 
that  the  former  part  of  the  declaration  respecting  war 
against  the  King  was  most  obnoxious  to  the  Presby- 
terian Lords,  yet  that  they  durst  not  oppose  it,  because 
the  principle  of  non-resistance  had  already  been  recog- 
nized in  the  Corporation  Act.  He  adds,  that  they  who 
were  most  solicitous  that  the  House  should  concur 
in  this  addition,  "  had  field-room  enough  to  expatiate 
upon  the  gross  iniquity  of  the  Covenant." 

The  Court  party,  Clarendon  says,  made  themselves 
very  merry  with  the  allegation,  that  the  King's  safety 
and  the  interest  of  the  Church  were  provided  for  by  the 
Covenant,  since  it  had  been  entered  into,  in  order  to 
fight  the  King  and  destroy  the  Church.  It  contradicted 
itself,  and,  if  it  were  not  so,  the  obligation  to  loyalty 
was  better  provided  for  by  some  other  oaths.  The  Bill 
was  no  breach  of  the  Act  of  Indemnity,  the  new 
Declaration  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  safety  of 
the  King's  person,  and  the  peace  of  the  kingdom  ;  the 
Covenant  was  still  the  idol  to  which  the  Presbyterians 
sacrificed,  and  there  must  always  be  a  jealousy  of  those 
who  had  taken  it,  until  they  had  declared  that  it  did 
not  bind  them.  The  clergy,  of  all  men,  ought  to  be 
glad  of  the  opportunity  which  was  offered,  to  vindicate 
their  loyalty  and  obedience.  On  the  7th  of  April 
"  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Worcester,"  appointed  to  Win- 
chester upon  the  death  of  Duppa  on  March  26th, 
"offered  to  the  consideration  of  this  House  an  ex- 
planation in  a  paper,  of  the  vote  of  this    House  on 


234  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

Saturday  last,  concerning  the  words  in  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  which  declared  against  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  which  he  first  opened,  and  afterwards, 
by  permission  of  the  House  read."  A  question  raised, 
Whether  a  debate  on  the  paper  was  against  the 
orders  of  the  House  .''  was  resolved  in  the  negative,  in 
consequence  of  which  the  Lords  ordered  that  the  paper 
should  be  taken  into  consideration  next  morning.  A 
memorandum  is  entered  in  connection  with  this  minute 
— "  That,  before  the  putting  of  the  aforesaid  question, 
these  Lords,  whose  names  are  subscribed,  desired  leave 
to  enter  their  dissents  if  the  question  was  carried  in 
the  negative."  No  names,  however,  appear.  The  day 
following,  the  House  examined  the  document  brought 
in  for  explaining  the  clause  concerning  the  Covenant ; 
and,  after  a  long  debate,  it  was  laid  aside. 

The  Bill  being  now  in  its  last  stage,  the  Lords 
appointed  certain  of  their  number  to  draw  up  a 
clause  empowering  the  King  to  make  such  provision 
for  any  of  the  deprived  clergy  as  he  should  see  fit.* 
As  this  clause,  like  the  proviso  respecting  the  cross  in 
baptism,  opened    the  door  for  Royal  interference,  so, 

*  The  Lords  appointed  were  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  the 
Earl  of  Bristol,  the  Earl  of  Anglesey,  the  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  the  Bishop  of  Hereford,  and  the  Lords 
Wharton,  Mohun,  Lucas,  and  Holies.  The  Earl  of  Anglesey- 
reported  the  next  day,  "  that  the  Committee  have  considered  of  a 
proviso,  that  such  persons  as  are  put  out  of  their  livings  by  virtue 
of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  may  have  such  allowances  out  of  their 
livings  for  their  subsistence  as  His  Majesty  shall  think  fit."  After 
some  debate  a  few  alterations  were  made,  and  it  was  resolved 
that  the  "  proviso,  with  the  alterations,  shall  stand  in  the  Bill." 
The  Lords  having  read  the  Bill  a  third  time,  April  9th,  resolved 
"to  send  for  a  Conference  with  the  House  of  Commons  to-morrow 
morning,  and  communicate  this  Bill  with  the  alterations  and 
amendments  to  them."  The  next  day  they  gave  directions  "  to 
deliver  the  Book  wherein  the  alterations  are  made,  out  of  which 
the  other  Book  was  fairly  written." 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  235 

probably,  like  that,  it  originated  in  a  Royal  sugges- 
tion. At  all  events,  these  two  amendments  in  contrast 
with  others  which  increased  the  severity  of  the  Bill, 
indicated  the  existence  of  kindliness  towards  tender 
consciences,  and  impoverished  clergymen,  a  disposition 
which  Charles  entertained,  and  in  which  certain  Lords, 
including  some  not  puritanically  inclined,  concurred 
with  him. 

When  the  Bill  had  reached  a  third  reading,  the 
amendments  were  referred  to  the  Commons  for  their 
consideration.  The  Commons  vigorously  set  them- 
selves to  work  ;  the  Committee  sitting  until  eight  at 
night,  a  late  hour  in  those  days,  and  meeting  early  the 
next  morning.*  No  debate  arose  upon  the  alterations 
made  in  the  Prayer  Book  by  the  Houses  of  Convoca- 
tion. The  House  of  Commons,  indeed,  appointed  a 
Committee  to  compare  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
sent  down  from  the  Lords  with  the  Book  sent  up  by 
themselves  ;  but  the  alterations  were  adopted  at  once, 
or,  rather,  the  Book  as  a  whole  was  adopted.  It  is 
remarkable,  however,  to  find  how  then,  as  almost 
always,  the  members  showed  themselves  jealous  of  their 
privileges  ;  for,  upon  a  question  being  put,  whether  the 
contents  of  the  revised  Book  should  come  under  debate, 
and  the  question  being  negatived,!  lest  it  should  be 
thought  that  the  State  in  this  matter  submitted  to  the 
Church,  and  allowed  the  right  of  Convocation  to  control 
Parliamentary  proceedings,  another  question,  i.e.,  "  that 
the  amendments  made  by  the  Convocation,  and  sent 
down  by  the  Lords  to  this  House,  might  by  the  order 

*  See  "Journals,"  April  loth,  14th,  and  i6tli.  A  number  of 
interesting  details  gathered  from  parliamentary  papers  relative  to 
minute  alterations  in  the  Bill  adopted  or  suggested,  may  be  found 
in  Dr.  Swainson's  pamphlet  already  noticed. 

t  By  96  to  90.     ("Journals,"  April  i6th.) 


236  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

of  this  House,  have  been  debated,"  received  an  affirma- 
tive answer,  without  a  single  dissentient  voice. 

Whilst  jealous  of  any  interference  with  their  own 
privileges,  the  Commons  had  no  regard  for  the  interests 
or  feelings  of  the  Puritan  clergy  ;  since  they  accepted 
the  harsh  amendments  of  the  Peers,  and  added  others 
of  their  own,  so  as  to  render  the  Bill  more  intolerable 
than  it  had  been  before.  This  circumstance  has  com- 
monly been  overlooked,  and  therefore  requires  par- 
ticular attention. 

The  Lords  had  introduced  a  reference  to  "the  tender- 
ness of  some  men's  consciences  ;  "  the  Commons  struck 
out  the  words.*  When  the  Lords'  substitution  of 
"Bartholomew"  for  "Michael  the  Archangel,"  a  sub- 
stitution which  aggravated  the  severity  of  the  measure, 
came  to  the  vote,  there  were  87  for  the  Angel's  day, 
and  96  for  the  Saint's.f  The  amendments  and  altera- 
tions respecting  ordination,  subscription,  and  the 
Covenant,  all  of  which  had  been  conceived  in  the  same 
spirit  of  severity,  were  adopted  without  division.  At 
the  same  time  the  Commons  extended  the  operation  of 
the  measure  so  as  to  bring  within  the  meshes  of  the 
net  not  only  the  clergy,  but  also  all  who  held  office  in 

*  "Journals." 

t  Dr.  Southey  in  his  "History  of  the  Church,"  1 1.  467,  observes, 
The  ejected  "  were  careful  not  to  remember  that  the  same  day, 
and  for  the  same  reason  (because  the  tithes  were  commonly  due 
at  Michaelmas),  had  been  appointed  for  the  former  ejectment, 
when  four  times  as  many  of  the  loyal  clergy  were  deprived  for 
fidelity  to  their  sovereign."  To  say  nothing  of  the  latter  part,  a 
subject  I  have  fully  discussed  in  a  former  volume,  I  would  notice 
Hallam's  question  respecting  Southey — "  Where  has  he  found  his 
precedent  t "  adding  that  not  any  one  Parliamentary  ordinance 
in  Husband's  collection  mentions  St.  Batholomew's  Day.  Southey 
has,  no  doubt,  followed  Walker  in  his  "  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy," 
who  makes  the  statement.  Yet  see  a  c^uotation  from  "  Farewell 
Sermons  "  in  this  volume,  p.  274. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  237 

the  Universities,  and  every  kind  of  teacher  down  to  a 
village  school-master,  or  a  tutor  in  some  private  family. 
All  such  persons,  as  well  as  Deans,  Canons,  and  Pre- 
bendaries, who  had  been  mentioned  in  the  original  Bill, 
were  obliged,  through  the  amendments  of  the  Com- 
mons, to  subscribe  the  declaration  of  non-resistance,  and 
of  conformity  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England, 
as  now  by  law  established  ;  also  to  deny  that  any 
obligation  had  been  incurred  by  taking  the  Covenant, 
and  to  repudiate  the  oath  respecting  it  as  unlawful. 
The  addition  of  a  penalty  of  three  months'  imprison- 
ment to  meet  the  case  of  men  who  had  no  livings  to  lose, 
affords  another  instance  of  the  harsh  spirit  of  the  Lower 
House.  Likewise  these  legislators  drew  within  the 
reach  of  the  Bill,  the  case  of  persons  who  held  benefices 
without  cures,  for  the  reason  that  the  House  did  not 
"think  fit  to  leave  sinecures  to  Nonconformists,"  nor 
permit  a  Nonconformist  to  hold  a  Curate's  or  a 
Lecturer's  place.*  When  an  attempt  was  made  in  a 
different  direction  to  confine  preferment  to  those  who 
should  receive  Episcopal  ordination  "  according  to  the 
form  of  the  Church  of  England,"  a  restriction  which 
would  have  excluded  such  as  were  in  Romish  orders, 
the  attempt  met  with  a  different  fate.  It  entirely 
failed.!  Also  the  Lords'  tolerant  proviso  for  dispensing 
with  the  cross  and  surplice  was  by  the  Commons 
negatived  at  once;$  and  after  an  adjourned  debate  upon 
the  allowance  of  a  fifth  part  of  the  income  to  ejected 
Incumbents,  the  considerate  amendment  of  the  Peers 
was  thrown  out  by  a  majority  of  seven. § 

*  Noticed  in  conferences  with  the  Lords,  May  7th. 
t  "  Commons'  Journal,"  April  21st. 
X  Ibid.,  April  22nd. 

§   Ibid.,  April  26th.     The  numbers  were  94  to  87.     It  is  curious 
to  notice  Hallam's  correction  of  Neal.     Referring  to  the  division 


238  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

When  all  this  had  been  done,  a  message  reached  the 
Upper  House,  on  the  30th  of  April,  to  request  a  Con- 
ference with  the  Commons  relative  to  the  amendments; 
but  owing  to  the  dilatoriness  of  the  Peers  the  Con- 
ference did  not  take  place  before  the  7th  of  May,  when 
Serjeant  Charlton  defended  the  Bill  in  the  shape  in 
which  the  Commons  had  left  it.*  In  an  elaborate 
oration  he  pointed  out,  and  defended  each  of  their 
amendments,  dwelling  upon  the  extension  of  the  Act 
to  school-masters,  as  necessary  for  the  proper  education 
of  the  young,  the  neglect  of  which  amongst  the  gentry 
and  nobility  had  been,  he  said,  the  root  of  numerous 
mischiefs  in  the  Long  Parliament.  "  It  was  an  over- 
sight," he  added,  "  in  the  usurped  powers  that  they 
took  no  care  in  this  particular,  whereby  many  young 
persons  were  well  seasoned  in  their  judgments  as  to 
the  King.  This  made  the  Commons  take  care  that 
school-masters,  as  well  as  ministers  should  subscribe, 
and  rather  more."  The  penalty  of  three  months'  im- 
prisonment, this  gentleman  ingeniously  urged,  was 
designed  to  meet  the  case  of  those  who  had  no  livings 
to  lose,  it  was  imprisonment  in  default  of  paying  a 
fine :  whilst  the  proviso  introduced  by  the  Lords,  to 
dispense  with  cross  and  surplice,  he  contended  was  a 
thing  altogether  without  precedent,  which  would  esta- 

on  the  26th  of  April,  he  says,  "This  may  perhaps  have  given  rise 
to  a  mistake  we  find  in  Neal,  that  the  Act  of  Uniformity  only 
passed  by  186  to  180.  There  was  no  division  at  all  upon  the 
Bill,  except  that  I  have  mentioned."  ("  Constitutional  History,"  1 1. 
2,T.)  Neal  is  undoubtedly  incorrect,  for  there  was  no  division  on 
the  Bill  as  a  whole  ;  but  as  to  parts  of  the  Bill  there  were  at 
least  four  divisions,  according  to  the  Journals.  The  neglect  of 
the  Parliamentary  Journals,  more  or  less,  by  all  historians,  has 
been  one  main  cause  of  the  inaccurate  and  confused  accounts 
found  in  the  best  of  them. 

*  "  Lords'  Journals,"  May  7th. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  239 

blish  schism,  and  yet  not  satisfy  those  for  whose  relief 
it  was  intended.  The  King's  engagement  at  Breda  to 
respect  "tender  consciences  "  had  been  noticed  by  the 
Lords  in  support  of  their  amendment ;  and  now,  with 
the  commonplace  sophistries  always  at  hand  for  the 
use  of  intolerance,  the  manager  laughed  at  the  idea  of 
calling  schismatical  consciences  "  tender."  "  A  tender 
conscience  denoted,"  according  to  his  definition,  "  an 
impression  from  without  received  from  another,  and 
that  upon  which  another  strikes ; "  what  the  definition 
exactly  means  I  am  at  a  loss  to  comprehend.  The 
Serjeant  was  clearer,  and  more  plausible,  although 
equally  sophistical  in  his  legal  reasoning,  to  the  efi"ect 
that  the  Breda  Declaration  had  two  limitations  :  first, 
its  validity  depended  upon  the  sanction  of  Parliament ; 
and,  secondly,  the  bestowment  of  liberty  must  consist 
with  the  kingdom's  peace.  As  to  the  allowance  of 
fifths  to  the  ejected  ministers,  he  argued  that  it  would 
be  repugnant  to  the  idea  of  uniformity,  that,  "joined 
with  the  pity  of  their  party"  it  "would  amount  to 
more  than  the  value  of  the  whole  living,"  that  it  would 
be  a  reflection  on  the  Act,  that  it  would  impoverish 
Incumbents,  and  that  it  would  encourage  Dissent. 
This  argument  was  no  less  heartless  than  contrary  to 
the  precedent,  which,  under  similar  circumstances,  had 
been  furnished  by  the  Long  Parliament.  Charlton 
further  suggested  that  the  Lords  should  recommend 
Convocation,  to  direct  "  such  decent  gestures,"  to  be 
used  during  the  time  of  Divine  service,  as  was  fit.  It 
may  be  stated  that  the  Lords,  on  the  8th  of  May, 
recommended  to  the  Bishops  and  the  House  of  Convo- 
cation, to  prepare  some  canon  or  rule  for  the  purpose  ; 
and  that  the  matter  was  accordingly  brought  before 
Convocation  on  the   lOth  and  12th  of  May,  when  the 


240  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VI. 

1 8th  of  the  canons  of  James  I.,  relating  to  the  subject, 
underwent  emendation.*  Charlton  concluded  by  say- 
ing, that  he  found  one  mistake  in  the  rubric  of  baptism, 
which  he  conceived  was  made  by  a  copyist,  the  word 
persons  being  written  instead  of  the  word  children.^ 
The  amendments  and  alterations  reported  to  the  Lords 
were  all  agreed  to,  and  the  clerical  error  in  the  Bill 
pointed  out  by  Charlton,  was  formally  rectified  at  the 
Clerks'  table  by  the  Bishops  of  Durham,  St.  Asaph, 
and  Carlisle,  under  authority  from  Convocation. $ 

*  "  Lords'  Journals,"  May  8th.  Cardwell's  "  Synodalia,"  672, 
t  There  is  an  anecdote  touching  the  same  rubric  related  by 
Kennet  (643).  "Archbishop  Tenison  told  me,  by  his  bedside,  on 
Monday,  February  12,  1710,  that  the  Convocation  Book,  intended 
to  be  the  copy  confirmed  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  had  a  rash 
blunder  in  the  rubric  after  baptism  which  should  have  run  '  It  is 
certain,  by  God's  word,  that  children  which  are  baptized  dying 
before  they  commit  actual  sin,  are  undoubtedly  saved.'  But  the 
words  '  which  are  baptized  '  were  left  out  till,  Sir  Cyril  Wyche 
coming  to  see  the  Lord  Chancellor  Hyde,  found  the  Book  brought 
home  by  His  Lordship,  and  lying  in  his  parlour  window,  even 
after  it  had  passed  the  two  Houses,  and  happening  to  cast  his 
eye  upon  that  place,  told  the  Lord  Chancellor  of  that  gross 
omission,  who  supplied  it  with  his  own  hand."  No  sign  of  this 
particular  error  occurs  in  the  authorized  text  attached  to  the  Act. 
Probably  Tenison  had  heard  a  story  of  the  alteration  which  I 
have  noticed,  and  related  it  inaccurately. 

X  The  entry  in  the  "  Lords'  Journals  "  runs  thus — "  Whereas  it 
was  signified  by  the  House  of  Commons,  at  the  Conference  yester- 
day, '  that  they  found  one  mistake  in  the  rubric  of  baptism,  which 
they  conceived  was  a  mistake  of  the  writer  [persons]  being 
put  instead  of  [children,]  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Durham  acquainted 
the  House  that  himself,  and  the  Lord  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  and 
the  Lord  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  had  authority  from  the  Convocation 
to  mend  the  said  word,  averring  it  was  only  a  mistake  of  the 
scribe  ;  and  accordingly  they  came  to  the  Clerks'  table,  and 
amended  the  same  ! "  This  was  on  the  8th  of  May,  but  on  the 
previous  21st  of  April  the  rectification  of  the  error  is  recorded  in 
the  proceedings  of  Convocation.  ("  Synodalia,"  670.)  That  the 
Commons  detected  the  clerical  error  in  the  copy  of  the  Book 
which  they  had  received  and  examined,  as  noticed  in  their 
Journals,  the  i6th  of  April  ;  and  that  they  called  the  attention  of 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  241 

A  MS.  volume,  copied  from  the  Common  Prayer, 
of  the  edition  of  1636,  and  altered  according  to  the 
decisions  of  Convocation,  was  with  the  printed  Book 
attached  to  the  Act.* 

the  Lords  to  it,  appears  from  a  loose  paper  in  which  it  is  said — 
"That  the  Lords  be  made  acquainted  tliat  this  House  hath 
observed  a  mistake  in  the  rubric  after  pubhc  baptism  of  infants, 
[persons]  being  inserted  instead  of  [children,]  which  they  take  to 
be  but  vitiiim  scriptoris,  and  desire  the  Lords  will  consider  of  a 
way  how  the  same  may  be  amended." 

*  In  the  first  edition  of  this  History  an  account  of  these  books 
was  given  at  length,  together  with  a  hst  of  alterations.  There  is 
no  need  to  repeat  this,  now  that  a  facsimile  of  the  black-letter 
Prayer  Book,  with  the  MSS.  attached  has  been  pubhshed,  "by 
authority  of  the  Lord  Commissioners  of  Her  Majesty's  Treasury." 
But  I  have  retained  in  an  appendix  to  this  volume,  a  copy  of 
Dr.  Swainson's  paper  on  modifications  made  in  compliance  with 
Puritan  recommendations. 


242  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Bill  received  the  Royal  assent  upon  the  19th  of 
May.  Perhaps  the  reader  will  not  be  wearied  with  an 
account  of  the  ceremony,  and  of  the  speeches  delivered 
at  the  time.  His  Majesty  occupied  the  throne  in 
Royal  magnificence.  The  Lord  Chancellor  took  his 
place  on  the  woolsack.  On  the  right  side  below  the 
throne,  sat  the  Archbishop  of  York,  the  Bishop  of 
Durham,  the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  other 
prelates,  including  Reynolds  of  Norwich,  who  could 
scarcely,  with  comfort,  have  witnessed  the  proceedings 
of  that  day.  Sheldon  and  Morley  were  not  present. 
On  the  left  side,  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Chamber, 
were  the  Lord  Treasurer,  the  Lord  Privy  Seal,  and 
three  Dukes,  Buckingham,  Richmond,  and  Albemarle. 
The  Marquis  of  Winchester  sat  by  Albemarle's  side, 
and  below  came  twenty-six  Earls,  one  Viscount,  and 
thirty-six  Barons.  The  Commons  appeared  at  the  bar, 
with  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  who  delivered  a  highly 
rhetorical  speech. 

The  King,  after  giving  his  assent,  delivered  a  curious 
homily  upon  the  extravagant  habits  of  the  people, 
without  saying  one  word  about  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
after  which  Clarendon  pronounced  a  long  oration,  in 
the  course  of  which  he  observed,  "  the  execution  of 
these  sharp  laws  depends  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  most 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  243 

discerning-,  generous,  and  merciful  Prince,  who,  having 
had  more  experience  of  the  nature  and  humour  of 
mankind  than  any  Prince  Hving,  can  best  distinguish 
between  the  tenderness  of  conscience  and  the  pride  of 
conscience,  between  the  real  effects  of  conscience  and 
the  wicked  pretences  to  conscience — a  Prince  of  so 
excellent  a  nature  and  tender  a  conscience  himself, 
that  he  hath  the  highest  compassion  for  all  errors  of 
that  kind,  and  will  never  suffer  the  weak  to  undergo 
the  punishment  ordained  for  the  wicked."  * 

This  was  an  extraordinary  speech  to  an  English 
Parliament.  It  can  bear  no  construction  but  that  of 
being  a  plea  for  some  dispensing  power.  The  Houses 
having  framed  a  law,  Clarendon  would  have  it  left  to 
the  Royal  wisdom  to  temper  its  administration,  and 
to  distinguish  between  tenderness  and  pride  of  con- 
science, as  if  the  power  of  discerning  spirits  were  a  gift 
to  kings.  What,  in  the  lips  of  any  English  senator 
would  be  inconsistent,  appears  doubly  so  in  the  present 
instance,  for  Clarendon  afterwards  opposed  the  exercise 
of  the  power  which  in  this  instance  he  claimed  on  his 
master's  behalf. 

It  is  necessary  here  to  pause,  and  inquire  what 
change  this  famous  Act  made  in  the  Establishment  of 
England.  The  insisting  upon  Episcopal  ordination,  in 
every  case,  as  essential  to  the  conducting  of  public 
service,  and  to  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  certainly 
cut  off  the  English  Church,  more  completely  than 
before,  from  fellowship  with  other  reformed  Churches  ;  f 

*  "  Lords' Journals,"  May  19th. 

t  It  is  evident  from  the  13th  of  Elizabeth,  c.  12,  "An  Act 
for  the  Ministers  of  the  Church  to  be  of  Sound  Religion,"  that  a 
particular  form  of  ordination  was  not  then  requisite  for  ministra- 
tion in  the  Establishment.  The  words  of  the  Act  are,  "That 
every  person  under  the  degree  of  a  Bishop,  which  doth  or  shall 


244  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

and,  in  consequence  of  another  provision  for  a  certain 
period,  the  pastoral  office  became  dependent  on  the 
taking  of  a  poHtical  oath,  to  which  some,  approving  of 
her  doctrine  and  of  her  discipline,  might  conscientiously 
object.  The  Church  also  stood  pledged  to  the  main- 
tenance of  civil  despotism.  Under  pretence  of  repro- 
bating the  course  pursued  under  the  Commonwealth, 
a  dogma  was  imposed  upon  the  ministers  of  religion, 
which,  if  believed,  would  effectually  prevent  any  resist- 
ance to  the  designs  of  an  arbitrary  monarch,  even  if  he 
should  lend  himself  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Church 
itself  Besides,  persons  might  be  found  not  unfriendly 
to  moderate  Episcopacy,  who,  nevertheless  felt  it  wrong 
to  use  respecting  the  League  and  Covenant  the  terms 
which  this  Act  prescribed.  The  Act  of  Uniformity 
added  the  requirement  of  "unfeigned  assent  and 
consent "  to  everything  contained  in  the  Prayer  Book. 
By  such  alterations  the  Church  of  England  became 
increasingly  exclusive  and  Erastian  in  its  principles, 
and  less  Protestant  and  liberal  in  its  spirit. 

In  carrying  a  great  measure,  responsibility  must  be 
divided.  It  rarely  happens  that  a  number  of  persons 
combining  together  to  effect  any  change  are  influenced 
by  the  same  views ;  and  in  this  instance  of  united 
action  different  degrees  of  responsibility,  and  different 
kinds  of  motives,  are  discoverable,  when  we  look  a 
little  below  the  surface. 

pretend  to  be  a  priest  or  mitiister  of  God's  holy  word  and  sacra- 
iiiciits  by  reason  of  any  otJier  form  of  institution,  consecration, 
or  ordering,  than  the  form  set  forth  by  Parhament,  in  the  time  of 
the  late  King  of  most  worthy  memory  King  Edward  VI.,  or  now 
used  in  the  reign  of  our  most  gracious  Sovereign  Lady  before  the 
P'east  of  the  Nativity  of  Christ  next  foHowing,  shall,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Bishop  or  guardian  of  the  spiritualities  of  some  one 
diocese  where  he  hath  or  shall  have  ecclesiastical  living,  declare 
his  assent  and  subscribe  to  all  the  Articles  of  Religion,"  &;c.  This 
was  the  law  till  1662. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  245 

I.  Convocation  must  be  held  responsible  for  the 
changes  made  in  the  Prayer  Book,  its  revision  being 
exclusively  the  work  of  that  assembly;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  it  should  be  remembered,  that  assembly 
formed  only  a  small  body,  and  represented  but  in  part 
the  sentiments  of  the  clergy.  Many  of  the  members 
felt  much  zeal  for  order  and  union  ;  the  feeling 
assumed  different  aspects  in  different  instances.  Some 
in  the  Upper  House,  as  Cosin,  Sanderson,  Racket, 
Ward,  Morley  ;  some  in  the  Lower,  especially  Thorn- 
dike,  sympathized  in  the  sentiments  of  Cyprian,  as 
expressed  in  his  "  Liber  de  Unitate  Ecclesiae,"  confound- 
ing unity  with  uniformity,  an  allegiance  to  Christ  with 
submission  to  Bishops.  They,  Hke  him,  might  suppose 
that  in  their  zeal  for  Episcopal  order,  they  were  work- 
ing out  an  answer  to  our  Lord's  intercessory  prayer. 
Such  a  conception  of  ecclesiastical  oneness  had  been,  by 
the  Nicene  and  Mediaeval  Churches,  handed  down  to 
the  Church  of  the  English  Reformation  ;  and  it  must 
be  admitted,  that  desires  for  uniformity  by  means  of 
Episcopal  order,  were  in  many  cases  so  interlinked 
with  submission  to  Christ,  that,  even  in  the  estimation 
of  those  who  differ  from  Anglo-Catholics,  they  had  their 
errors,  in  a  measure,  redeemed  by  the  devoutness  of 
their  affections.  Desires  for  uniformity,  however,  as 
they  wrought  at  the  period  of  the  Restoration,  in  some 
both  of  the  superior  and  inferior  clergy,  had  nothing 
whatever  of  nobleness  in  them. 

The  Bishops  shared  in  the  responsibility  of  the 
Upper  House  of  Parliament,  as  well  as  in  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  Upper  House  of  Convocation.  Sheldon, 
to  whom  must  be  attributed  much  influence  over  the 
latter,  and  also  much  over  the  former,  so  far  as  the 
Bishops  were  concerned,  and  who  also,  from  his  promi- 


246  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

nent  position  and  great  activity  at  the  Restoration,  could 
not  fail  to  share  in  Clarendon's  counsels  respecting 
the  Bill,  was  not  a  man  of  religious  zeal,  but  a  man 
of  worldly  principles  ;  and  it  is  not  uncharitable  to 
regard  others  on  the  Bench,  and  in  the  Lower  House, 
as  closely  resembling  him  in  this  respect.  Reynolds 
belonged  to  a  class  which,  when  a  crisis  arrives,  will 
always  bend  to  the  force  of  stronger  minds,  and  be 
carried  along  by  the  current  of  authority. 

Between  the  Bishops  at  the  Restoration  and  the 
Bishops  at  the  Reformation,  a  considerable  difference 
appears.  The  theology  of  the  Anglican  prelates  at  the 
Restoration  was  not  imbued  with  those  elements  of 
thought,  which  the  early  Reformers  held  in  common 
with  Puritan  Divines  ;  hence,  in  part,  arose  the  dislike 
which  the  Fathers  of  the  re-established  Church  cherished 
towards  Nonconformists.  Sheldon,  as  will  appear  when 
I  more  fully  examine  his  character,  differed  from  the 
ecclesiastical  leaders  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  such 
as  Parker  and  Jewel,  who  had  strong  religious  affections, 
and  were  earnestly  bent  upon  building  up  Protestantism 
in  England  as  the  great  bulwark  of  her  prosperity; 
moreover,  the  Caroline  restorers  and  revisers  of  the 
Prayer  Book  were  utterly  deficient  in  comprehensive 
policy.  The  Elizabethan  Divines  did  avoid,  as  much 
as  possible,  giving  offence  to  any  of  the  old  Roman 
Catholic  party  just  dispossessed  of  power,  who  felt  at  all 
disposed  to  join  them  ;  and,  as  I  have  already  noticed, 
the  Puritans,  in  their  exceptions  against  the  Prayer 
Book  at  the  Savoy  Conference,  urged  on  their  op- 
ponents the  comprehensive  policy  of  the  Reformers  :  * 
but  the  ecclesiastical  leaders  of  Charles'  day,  threw 
every  obstacle  they  could  in  the  path  of  those  Non- 
*  Baxter,  II.  317  ;  Cardwell's  "  Conferences/'  305. 


1662.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  247 

conformists  who  showed  any  disposition  to  adopt   a 
modified  system  of  Episcopacy. 

II.  In  the  House  of  Commons  there  existed  a  mad 
RoyaHst  party,  influenced  by  strong  personal  resent- 
ment, who  identified  the  Church  with  the  Throne,  who 
could  not  forget  what  they  had  suffered  under  the 
Commonwealth,  and  who  had  a  keen  recollection  of 
estates  sequestered,  and  fines  imposed.  They  were 
bent  upon  punishing  their  foes,  and  therefore  made  the 
Act  as  rigid  as  possible.  Its  severest  provisions  are 
to  be  ascribed  not  to  the  clergy  in  general,  nor  to  the 
Lords,  nor  to  the  prelates,  but  to  the  Commons.  The 
Commons  were  more  intolerant  and  fierce  than  any 
of  the  Bishops,  than  any  of  their  brethren.  "  Every  man, 
according  to  his  passion,  thought  of  adding  somewhat " 
to  the  Bill  which  "  might  make  it  more  grievous  to 
somebody  whom  he  did  not  love."  *  Liberal  amend- 
ments in  the  Upper  House  were  resisted  in  the  Lower, 
and  to  the  unjust  and  ungenerous  provisions  added  by 
the  Lords,  were  others  more  unjust  and  ungenerous 
added  by  the  Commons.  The  Commons,  in  com- 
parison with  the  Lords,  appear  to  have  been  what  the 
young  men,  whom  Rehoboam  consulted  and  followed, 
were  in  comparison  with  the  old  men,  who  stood  before 
Solomon  his  father,  and  the  scourge  of  whips  became 
a  scourge  of  scorpions.f  Bad  as  was  the  Bill  from  the 
first,  it  was  worse  in  the  end  than  in  the  beginning. 

III.  Clarendon  ought  to  bear  a  large  share  of  re- 
sponsibility. His  attachment  to  an  Episcopalian 
establishment  has  been  repeatedly  noticed.  He  re- 
garded it  as  the  bulwark  of  Protestantism,  the  main 

*  Clarendon's  "  Continuation,"  1078. 

t  This  illustration  was  suggested  to  me  by  a  distinguished 
Divine  of  the  Church  of  England. 


248  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

stay  of  the  nation's  weal.  Burnet  reckons  him  more 
a  friend  of  the  Bishops  than  of  the  Church  ;  certainly 
he  showed  anxiety  to  please  them,  and  their  good 
opinion  and  support  were  of  importance  to  him  in 
many  ways.  What  induced  him  to  court  the  Bishops 
would,  in  a  still  stronger  degree,  induce  him  to  gratify 
the  Commons.  Consequently,  supposing  that  his  better 
nature,  or,  which  is  probable,  his  wiser  judgment,  in- 
clined him  towards  a  more  moderate  course,  other 
considerations  induced  him  to  adopt  the  severe  line 
which  had  been  chalked  out  by  some,  and  filled  up  by 
others.*  Clarendon,  as  leader  of  the  Upper  House, 
does  not  appear  to  have  used  his  influence  for  the 
purpose  of  removing  from  the  Bill  any  of  its  most 
rigorous  parts  ;  to  their  abatement  perhaps  he  might 
contribute,  although  this  does  not  appear.  The 
liberal  amendments  proposed  by  certain  Peers  seem  to 
have  been  abandoned  without  a  struggle,  and  for  this 
surrender  surely  Clarendon  is  mainly  answerable. 

IV.  Another  party  concurred  in  the  Act  from  entirely 
different  motives.  The  Roman  Catholics  had  been  on 
the  increase  since  the  Restoration.  Somerset  House, 
the  residence  of  the  Queen  Mother,  was  a  place  of 
resort  for  the  leaders  of  the  party.  There,  and  at  the 
mansion  of  the  Earl  of  Bristol,  they  consulted  upon 
the  interests  of  their  own  Church.  Of  course,  they 
had  no  idea  of  seeking  comprehension  in  the  Establish- 
ment, their  policy  was  to  procure  toleration  ;  with  that 
for  the  present  they  would  be  satisfied,  whatever  might 
be  their  ulterior  aims.  Nothing  promised  so  much 
advantage  to  them  as  the  passing  of  a  stringent  measure, 

*  He  speaks  (1079)  of  the  Upper  House  expunging  some  parts 
of  that  subscription  which  had  been  annexed  to  the  Bill.  I  find 
no  trace  of  this. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  249 

which  would  cast  out  of  the  English  Church  as  many 
Protestants  as  possible.  Whilst  they  were  aware  of 
the  terror  which  they  inspired  in  the  minds  of  Noncon- 
formists, they  hoped  that  fellowship  in  suffering  might 
soften  antipathy,  and  dispose  their  opponents,  for  their 
own  sakes,  to  advocate  some  general  indulgence  :  they 
considered  that  the  fact  of  a  large  number  of  Pro- 
testants suffering  from  persecuting  laws,  would  at  least 
strengthen  the  argument  in  its  favour.  It  was,  I  appre- 
hend, on  this  principle,  that  the  Duke  of  York  and  the 
Catholic  Peers  united  in  supporting  all  the  provisions 
for  uniformity.  At  the  head  of  this  Roman  Catholic 
party  the  King  himself  is  to  be  placed.  When  he  had 
reluctantly  made  up  his  mind  to  consent  to  the  measure, 
it  was  in  accordance  with  the  circuitous  policy  I  have 
now  pointed  out.  Besides,  he  was  fond  of  a  dispensing 
power,  liking  Royal  Declarations  better  than  Acts  of 
Parliament ;  almost  any  statute  would  be  tolerable  to 
him,  if  it  gave  him  the  prospect  of  affording  relief  to  his 
subjects  in  the  form  of  sovereign  concession.  Clarendon, 
who  subsequently  opposed  the  exercise  of  this  power, 
now  virtually  recognized  it,  as  a  prerogative  of  the 
King,  in  the  speech  just  quoted,  and  plainly  pointed 
to  the  Royal  intention  of  employing  that  method 
for  mitigating  severities  in  the  present  statute  of 
uniformity. 

Policy  and  passion  were  stamped  upon  the  face  of 
the  measure.  It  would  be  the  bitterest  of  all  satires 
to  say  that  the  men  principally  concerned  in  it  were 
influenced  by  religious  conviction,  that  conscientiously 
and  in  the  sight  of  God,  they  performed  an  act  which, 
though  they  saw  it  to  be  rigorous,  they  felt  to  be 
righteous.  Amidst  keenly  excited  feelings  on  the  side 
of  an  exclusive  policy,  perhaps  there  was  no  impulse 


250  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

of  greater  force  than  the  very  common  one  of  party 
feehng.  When  we  recollect  that  it  was  not  to  the 
clergy  then  expressing  itself  in  Convocation,  or  in  any 
other  way,  but  to  Parliament,  that  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land owed  the  clauses  which  required  the  repudiation 
of  the  Covenant,  and  of  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance, 
clauses  which  so  galled  the  Puritans,  the  Act,  to  a  large 
extent,  appears,  not  so  much  an  ecclesiastical  measure 
as  a  work  executed  by  a  political  faction,  bent  upon 
crushing  opponents,  under  pretence  of  their  being  un- 
patriotic and  disloyal.  Of  the  bad  spirit  in  which 
Parliament  framed  and  passed  this  Act  there  remains 
not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  and  it  is  impossible  that 
any  one  acquainted  with  the  circumstance,  however  he 
may  admire  the  Church  so  re-established  at  the  Re- 
storation, can  think  of  the  mode  of  its  re-establishment 
without  shame  and  sorrow. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  Act  omitted  to  provide 
for  uniformity  in  certain  important  particulars  ;  and  it 
has  failed  to  produce  the  uniformity  intended  in  others.* 
Nothing  was  done  in  relation  to  psalmody ;  forms  of 
prayer  and  praise  in  prose  were  rigidly  set  down,  but 
forms  of  prayer  and  praise  in  verse  were  left  to  be 
composed  or  adopted  at  the  pleasure  of  any  one,  subject 
only  to  the  doubtful  authority  of  the  Bishop  or  Ordinary. 
The  formularies  of  the  Prayer  Book  relating  to  baptism 
have  long  received  from  Episcopalians  contradictory 
interpretations  ;  and,  of  late  years,  liberty  in  this  respect 
has  been  legally  conceded  as  not  inconsistent  with  the 
Act  of  Uniformity.    The  obscurity  of  the  rubric  on  the 

*  It  is  curious  that  in  one  particular,  uniformity  exists  beyond 
the  direction  of  the  Prayer  Book.  Lathbury  says  :  "  Both  by 
rubrical  and  cano7iical  authority,  the  table  may  be  placed  in  the 
body  of  the  Church  or  in  the  chancel."  ("  Hist,  of  Con."  303.) 
Yet  the  practice  is  to  place  it  near  the  wall  at  the  east  end. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  251 

subject  of  ornaments  renders  a  decision  of  the  con- 
troversy by  ecclesiastical  lawyers  a  difficult  matter,  and 
consequently  places  Bishops  in  perplexity  as  to  what  is 
the  law,  and  how  they  are  to  proceed.  I  am  struck 
with  the  imegical pressure  of  the  Act.  It  made  clerical 
practice  in  some  respects  very  strict,  and  in  others  very 
lax  :  whilst,  as  to  prominent  points  then  in  dispute 
between  Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians,  the  law  is 
precise,  as  to  other  points,  far  from  unimportant,  the 
same  law,  through  intention  or  neglect,  opens,  or  leaves 
open,  a  wide  field  for  difference  and  for  controversy. 

The  experience  of  a  hundred  years  was  thrown  away 
upon  the  authors  of  the  measure.  The  first  Act  of 
Uniformity  under  Elizabeth  had  proved  a  failure,  the 
subsequent  history  of  her  reign  had  shown,  that  this 
contrivance  to  repress  the  spirit  of  religious  liberty 
produced  no  more  effect  than  did  the  green  withs  which 
bound  Samson.  The  troubles  of  James'  reign,  the 
overthrow  of  Laud's  policy,  together  with  his  sufferings 
and  death,  illustrated  the  mischievous  consequences  of 
confounding  unity  with  uniformity,  and  of  seeking  the 
first  by  means  of  the  second.  Grindal  and  other  prelates 
had  been  sick  at  heart,  through  fruitless  endeavours 
made  to  secure  spiritual  obedience  by  physical  force. 
Lord  Bacon  had  pointed  out  the  difference  between 
unity  and  uniformity,  and  had  reproved  the  persecutor, 
by  saying,  that  the  silencing  of  ministers  was  a  punish- 
ment that  lighteth  upon  the  people,  as  well  as  upon 
the  party ;  *  others  of  humbler  name  had  still  more 
clearly  explained,  and  still  more  directly  enforced,  the 
lessons  of  toleration.  But  all  in  vain,  the  teaching  of 
a  whole  century  had  been  wasted  on  the  contrivers  and 
supporters  of  the  second  Act  of  Uniformity.     The  Act 

*  "  Essays."     On  "  Unity  "  and  "  Of  Church  Controversies." 


252  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  YII. 

did  not  merely  eject  all  Incumbents  who  scrupled  to 
comply  with  its  requirement,  but  it  silenced  throughout 
the  land  all  the  preachers  of  Christianity  who  were  not 
Conformists.  All  Nonconformist  ministers  were  pro- 
hibited from  officiating  in  the  pulpits  of  the  Episco- 
palian Church  established  by  law  ;  few  other  places  of 
worship  were  in  existence,  and  the  operation  of  the 
Act,  especially  by  citing  and  recognizing  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  under  Elizabeth,  would  be  to  prevent  Non- 
conformists from  preaching  anywhere. 

Two  classes  then  were  affected  :  Incumbents,  whom 
the  Act  ejected,  and  ministers  not  Incumbents,  whom 
it  silenced.  Plausible  arguments  might  be  adduced 
for  the  uniformity  of  an  establishment,  strong  reasons 
might  be  urged  against  a  coalition  of  Episcopacy  with 
Presbyterianism.  The  government  of  Bishops,  and  the 
use  of  a  Liturgy,  being  adopted  in  the  Church,  it  may 
be  said  that  it  was  only  consistent,  that  there  should  be 
the  maintenance  of  order  in  the  ministry,  and  of  regu- 
larity in  the  worship.  But  the  Act  went  much  further, 
and  proceeded  upon  the  theory  of  one  ecclesiastical 
incorporation  of  the  entire  State,  without  recognizing 
outside  the  existence  of  any  religion  whatever.  To 
Nonconformists  there  was  an  utter  denial  of  any  spiritual 
rights.  For  them  there  was  to  be  neither  comprehen- 
sion nor  toleration.  The  germs  of  the  Conventicle  and 
Five  Mile  Acts  were  in  the  bosom  of  the  Uniformity 
Bill. 

More  victims  in  the  month  of  April  were  sacrificed 
upon  the  altar  of  revenge.  Colonel  John  Okey,  a  dis- 
tinguished officer  in  the  Commonwealth  Army,  who 
had  adopted  Republican  and  Millenarian  views  ;  Miles 
Corbet,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  Re- 
corder of  Yarmouth,  who  had  been  connected  with  the 


1662]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  253 

Church  under  the  pastoral  care  of  William  Bridge,  in 
that  town  ;  and  Colonel  John  Barkstead,  who  had  been 
knighted  by  Cromwell,  and  had  been  appointed  to  a 
seat  in  his  House  of  Lords — all  three,  after  a  brief  trial, 
and  a  merciless  sentence,  for  the  part  they  had  taken 
in  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  were  executed  at  Tyburn. 
A  noble  victim  perished  two  months  afterwards.  It 
has  been  with  Sir  Henry  Vane  as  with  Oliver  Cromwell : 
having  disliked  each  other  in  life,  they  have  shared  a 
common  fate  in  the  judgment  of  posterity  :  for,  after 
years  of  odium,  the  names  of  both  are  raised  to  honour. 
Vane's  Republicanism  rendered  him  impracticable,  and 
his  mysticism,  although  undeserving  the  reproaches  of 
Baxter  and  Burnet,  threw  a  haze  over  his  speculations, 
which  makes  them  somewhat  unintelligible ;  but  the 
piety  and  genius  of  his  "  Meditations,"  and  the  purity  and 
virtue  of  his  life,  render  him  an  object  of  reverence  and 
love.  He  was  tried  for  compassing  the  death  of  the 
King  ;  yet,  whatever  he  might  be  in  other  respects,  he 
was  no  regicide.  The  evidence  on  his  trial  only  proved 
that  he  had  held  office  under  the  Commonwealth,  that 
he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Council  of  State  in  165 1, 
and  had  belonged  to  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  1659. 
To  make  the  condemnation  and  sentence  of  Vane  the 
more  unrighteous,  the  King,  after  solemnly  promising 
to  spare  the  life  of  the  Republican,  had  written  to 
Clarendon,  saying — Vane  "  is  too  dangerous  a  man  to 
let  live,  if  we  can  honestly  put  him  out  of  the  way." 
The  spirit  of  the  prisoner  appears  in  a  letter  which  he 
wrote  to  his  wife.  "This  dark  night,  and  black  shade," 
he  observes,  "  which  God  hath  drawn  over  His  work  in 
the  midst  of  us,  may  be,  for  aught  we  know,  the  ground 
colour  to  some  beautiful  piece  that  He  is  now  exposing 
to  the  light."     His  execution  was  an  ovation.     From 


254  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

the  crowded  tops  and  windows  of  the  houses,  people 
expressed  their  deep  sympathy,  crying  aloud,  "  The 
Lord  go  with  you,  the  great  God  of  heaven  and  earth 
appear  in  you  and  for  you  ; "  signs  of  popular  feeling 
which  sustained  the  sufferer,  who  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged them,  "  putting  off  his  hat  and  bowing."  When 
asked  how  he  did,  he  answered,  "  Never  better  in  all 
my  life  ; "  and  on  the  scaffold  his  noble  bearing  so 
affected  the  spectators  that  they  could  scarcely  believe 
"the  gentleman  in  the  black  suit  and  cloak,  with  a 
scarlet  silk  waistcoat  (the  victorious  colour)  showing 
itself  at  the  breast,  was  the  prisoner."  Frequent  in- 
terruptions from  the  sound  of  drums  drowned  his  voice, 
which,  as  Burnet  says,  was  "  a  new  and  very  indecent 
practice."  The  officers,  as  they  put  their  hands  in  his 
pockets,  searching  for  papers,  exasperated  the  populace, 
whilst  Vane's  calmness  led  a  Royalist  present  to  say, 
"he  died  like  a  prince."  Before  receiving  the  last 
stroke,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  bless  the  Lord,  who  hath 
accounted  me  worthy  to  suffer  for  His  name.  Blessed 
be  the  Lord,  that  I  have  kept  a  conscience  void  of 
offence  to  this  day.  I  bless  the  Lord  I  have  not 
deserted  the  righteous  cause  for  which  I  suffer." 
"  Father,  glorify  Thy  servant  in  the  sight  of  men,  that 
he  may  glorify  Thee  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  to 
Thee  and  to  his  country."  One  blow  did  the  work. 
"  It  was  generally  thought,"  remarks  Burnet,  "  the 
Government  had  lost  more  than  it  had  gained  by  his 
death."  Pepys  declares  the  people  counted  his  con- 
stancy "  a  miracle  ;  "  adding,  "  The  King  lost  more  by 
that  man's  death  than  he  will  get  again  for  a  good 
while."  *  Thus  fell  one  of  the  triumvirate  described  in 
a  former  volume,  thus  fell  the  noblest  mystic  of  the 

*  Forster,  III.  209-240;  "Own  Time,"  I.  164. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:  255 

age,  next  to  George  Fox,  thus  was  devoted  to  death  in 
the  Temple  of  Expediency,  one  who  had  never  bowed 
at  the  shrine  of  that  heathen  goddess,  but  had  always 
fervently  worshipped  in  the  Temple  of  Christian 
Virtue.  Whatever  his  enemies  might  do  with  his 
body,  they  could  not  prevent  his  pure  soul  from  enter- 
ing that  adjacent  Temple  of  Honour,  on  the  walls  of 
which  his  name  is  inscribed  for  evermore. 

Some  of  the  regicides  escaped  with  their  lives.  Well 
known  is  the  story  of  Edmund  Ludlow,  how  he  fled  at 
the  Restoration,  and  went  to  Geneva,  and  settled  at 
Vevay ;  how  he  came  back  to  England  at  the  period  of 
the  Revolution,  and  set  sail  for  Ireland  to  assist  William 
III.  at  the  siege  of  Londonderry,  and  was  compelled 
to  return  because  that  prince  would  not  allow  in  his 
fleet,  the  presence  of  one  who  had  been  implicated 
in  his  grandfather's  execution.*  But  history  tells  of 
another  regicide,  less  known  to  fame,  whose  fortunes 
were  less  happy,  and  more  wonderful.  Edward  Whalley 
figured  amongst  Cromwell's  Major-Generals,  and  was 
so  considerable  a  person  that  Richard  Baxter  dedicated 
to  him  a  controversial  work,  entitled  "  The  Apology," 
in  which  he  says,  "  Think  not  that  your  greatest  trials 
are  all  over.  Prosperity  hath  its  peculiar  temptations, 
by  which  it  hath  foiled  many  that  stood  unshaken  in 
the  storms  of  adversity.  The  tempter,  who  hath  had 
you  on  the  waves,  will  now  assault  you  in  the  calm, 
and  hath  his  last  game  to  play  on  the  mountain  till 
nature  cause  you  to  descend.  Stand  this  charge,  and 
you  win  the  day."t  The  Divine  little  apprehended  the 
fate  awaiting  the  soldier.  A  few  days  before  Charles' 
return,  Whalley,   with   his   son-in-law,    Major-General 

*  Noble's  "Regicides,"  II.  31. 
t  Orme's  "  Life  of  Baxter,"  454. 


256  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

Gough, — who  had  stood  together  by  Oliver  Cromwell's 
death-bed, — sailed  for  America.  Landing  at  Boston, 
they  were  protected  by  the  Governor,  until  scented  out 
by  the  Royalists  of  Barbadoes,  they  were  forced  to 
renew  their  flight.  Settled  at  Newhaven,  the  minister 
of  the  place,  named  Davenport,  pleaded  for  their 
security  in  a  sermon  from  the  ingeniously  selected 
words  :  "  Let  mine  outcasts  dwell  with  thee, — be  thou 
a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of  the  spoiler."  *  Re- 
wards were  offered  for  the  fugitives,  and  this  minister 
was  threatened  for  his  advocacy  on  their  behalf,  but  he 
continued  to  harbour  them  in  his  neighbourhood,  where 
they  abode  in  a  cave  on  the  top  of  a  rock,  to  which 
was  given  the  name  of  Providence.  This  kind  of  life 
they  spent  for  two  or  three  years,  when  they  removed 
to  Hadley,  and  there,  under  the  protection  of  another 
minister,  spent  sixteen  years  more  of  alarm,  privation, 
and  sorrow.  The  people  in  these  parts  were  at  war 
with  the  famous  Indian  Chief,  Philip  of  Pokanoket, 
who  with  his  tribe  one  day  surrounded  the  little  town 
at  an  hour  when  the  inhabitants  were  engaged  in  public 
worship.  Although  the  people  always  carried  arms, 
even  at  church,  on  this  occasion  the  sudden  assault 
filled  them  with  fear,  and,  for  once  unmanned,  they 
would  have  probably  fallen  into  the  hands  of  their  foes, 
had  not  a  strange  person,  in  peculiar  attire,  and  of 
commanding  presence,  put  himself  at  their  head,  skil- 
fully marshalling  the  little  band,  with  the  words  and 
authority  of  a  general.  It  was  as  when  the  Romans 
fought  under  the  leadership  of  the  twin  brethren  ;  and 
the  unknown  visitant  and  deliverer  proved  to  be  no 
other  than  Gough,  who  had  learned  the  arts  of  war 
under  Oliver  Cromwell.     He  survived  his  father-in-law 

*  Isaiah  xvi.  4. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  257 

Whalley,  who  died  in  the  year  of  the  English  Revohi- 
tion.* 

The  revised  edition  of  the  Prayer  Book  was  not 
ready  until  the  6th  of  August.  Then  appeared  an 
advertisement  announcing  that  books  in  folio  were  pro- 
vided for  all  churches  and  chapels  ;  the  price  of  each 
being  six  shillings,  ready  bound.  Printed  copies, 
examined  and  corrected,  were  certified  under  the  Great 
Seal,  and  the  Deans  and  Chapters  of  cathedral  and 
collegiate  churches  were  required  to  obtain  one  of 
these  books  annexed  to  a  copy  of  the  Act,  before  the 
25th  of  December.  A  similar  copy  was  to  be  delivered 
to  the  Courts  at  Westminster,  to  be  placed  amongst 
the  Records  in  the  Tower  of  London.f 

In  those  days,  when  editions  were  not  thrown  off  in 
thousands  by  a  steam  press,  and  there  was  no  book 
post  to  convey  parcels  in  one  night  to  the  Land's  End,, 
it  was  slow  work  to  multiply  and  circulate  copies. 
Some  clergymen,  therefore,  could  not  get  sight  of  the 
alterations  before  St.  Bartholomew's  Day.  It  showed 
indecent  haste  to  date  the  time  for  decision  so  early  as 

*  Holmes'  "  Annals  of  America,"  and  Orme's  "  Life  of  Baxter," 
454.  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  adopted  the  romantic  story  of  the 
Indian  War  in  his  "  Peveril  of  the  Peak,"  but  he  has  confounded 
Whalley  with  Gough.  Cooper  has  also  used  the  story  in  one  of 
his  novels. 

t  The  Book  was  so  hastily  printed,  that  the  proofs  were  not 
carefully  compared  with  the  written  copy  attached  to  the  Act. 
At  Chichester  there  are  two  of  these  uncorrected  copies.  The 
tliird  or  sealed  copy  is  the  one  which  passed  through  the  hands 
of  the  Commissioners,  and  is  altered  by  their  pens.  The  altera- 
tions arc  found  to  be  chiefly  corrections  of  errors  arising  from  ai 
hasty  copying  of  the  MS.  Book  for  the  press.  There  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  much  care  taken  with  the  reprints,  even  after 
the  "Sealed  Books"  were  distributed.  An  edition  dated  1669, 
perpetuates  most  of  the  errors  of  the  printed  copy  of  1662.  For 
this  information  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Swainson. 


258  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

the  24th  of  August;  or  it  showed  indecent  delay,  not 
to  issue  the  Book  unti]  within  three  weeks  before.  It 
has  been  asserted  that  few  parishes  received  it  till  a 
fortnight  after  the  period  prescribed,  and  Burnet  says 
that  he  was  informed  by  some  of  the  Bishops,  that 
many  clergymen  subscribed  before  they  had  seen  the 
volume.*  One,  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  pleaded  as 
a  proof  of  the  injustice  of  his  being  silenced,  that  he 
had  never  had  an  opportunity  of  reading  what  he  was 
required  to  adopt  ;  and  he  adds,  that  this  was  the  case 
with  many  more.  A  clergyman,  named  Steel,  in  his 
farewell  sermon,  at  Hanmer,  in  Flintshire,  declared 
"  he  was  silenced  and  turned  out,  for  not  declaring  his 
unfeigned  assent  and  consent  to  a  Book  which  he  never 
saw  or  could  see."t  Certainly  the  Book  ought  to  have 
been  in  every  rectory  and  vicarage  a  month  or  two 
previously  to  the  day  of  ejection  ;  yet,  it  must  be 
acknowledged,  too  much  was  made  of  the  difficulty  at 
the  time,  and  too  much  has  been  made  of  it  since  ;  for 
the  fifth  clause  of  the  Act  distinctly  provides  for  lawful 
impediments  "  to  be  allowed]  and  approved  of  by  the 
Ordinary  of  the  place."  %  Upon  this  clause  we  have 
a  practical  commentary  in  a  paper  issued  by  the  Bishop 
of  Peterborough,  expressly  providing  for  such  cases.§ 
The  Bishop  very  properly  treated  as  a  lawful  impedi- 
ment, inability  to  examine  the  Book :  and  in  the 
following  year,  as  we  shall  see,  an  Act  passed  for  the 
relief  of  such  persons  as  were  disabled  from  declaring 

*  "Own  Time,"  I.  185. 

t  "  Life  of  Philip  Henry,"  100.  See  also  Calamy's  "  Defence 
of  Moderate  Nonconformists,"  Vol.  II.  357. 

%  Sir  Edward  Coke,  in  his  "  Institutes,"  Part  II.,  says  that  the 
"word  Ordinary  signifieth  a  Bishop,  or  he,  or  they,  that  have 
ordinary  jurisdiction,  and  is  derived  ab  ordittc.'''' 

§  Dated  the  17th  of  August,  1662.  (Kennet's  "  Historical 
Register,"  743.) 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  259 

conformity.  Wherever  and  whenever  a  prelate  felt  so 
disposed,  he  could  make  allowance  for  such  inability  ; 
nevertheless,  the  fact  remains,  that  it  rested  entirely 
with  him  to  determine  what  was  a  lazvfitl  iinpcdinicnt, 
and  to  allow  or  not,  the  force  of  scruples,  according  to 
his  own  personal  pleasure ;  if  the  Diocesan  chose  to 
decide  against  the  Incumbent,  the  patron  might  at 
once  present  another  person  to  the  living. 

Richard  Baxter  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  the  Esta- 
blishment within  a  week  of  the  time  when  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  received  the  Royal  assent.  He  preached 
on  the  25th  of  May,  and  then  gave  as  reasons  for  his 
early  silence,  that  he  considered  the  Act  at  once  put 
an  end  to  the  liberty  of  his  lecturing  in  parish  churches, 
and  that  he  wished  his  brethren  to  understand  he  had 
fully  made  up  his  mind  not  to  conform.  He  thought 
if  he  "stayed  to  the  last  day,"  some  might  be  led  to 
suppose  he  meant  to  submit,  and  so  might  be  drawn 
into  an  imitation  of  his  supposed  example.  Baxter's 
course  in  this  respect  was  peculiar.  The  Presbyterians 
generally  remained  in  the  Church,  as  long  as  they 
could,  although  they  had  quite  made  up  their  minds 
as  to  what  they  should  do  when  the  decisive  feast  of 
St.  Bartholomew  arrived.  Philip  Henry  spent  days  of 
prayer  for  Divine  direction,  and  sought  advice  from 
friends  at  Oxford  and  Chester.  He  objected  to  be 
re-ordained,  and  could  not,  after  being  a  Presbyter  for 
years,  declare  himself  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
take  upon  himself  the  office  of  Deacon.  The  difficulty 
in  his  case  was  increased  by  the  demand  of  Hall, 
Bishop  of  Chester,  that  the  Presbyterians  whom  he 
ordained  should  explicitly  repudiate  their  previous 
orders.*     Henry  could  not  give  his  assent  and  consent 

*  In   this   form — "Ego   A.    B.    prcetensas   meas    ordinationis 


26o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

to  things  in  the  Prayer  Book  which  to  him  were  not 
true.  He  felt  the  force  of  the  exceptions  taken  at  the 
Savoy  Conference,  and  did  not  believe  in  the  power  of 
any  company  of  men  to  impose  a  yoke  of  ceremonial 
law  upon  the  necks  of  their  brethren.  He  disapproved 
of  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  table  as  a  practice  unwarranted 
by  Scripture,  unsuited  to  the  celebration  of  a  supper,  and 
"grossly  abused  even  to  idolatry,"  the  imposition  of 
which  was  a  violation  of  Christian  liberty.  He  objected 
particularly  to  kneeling  at  the  rails,  as  smelling  "  rank 
of  Popish  superstition  :  "  the  indiscriminate  Communion 
of  the  Episcopalian  Church  he  could  not  reconcile  with 
his  notions  of  discipline  ;  and,  though  he  had  never 
taken  the  Covenant,  he  would  not  condemn  those  who 
had  done  so.  He  approved  of  Archbishop  Ussher's 
scheme  of  Episcopacy,  and  "  thought  it  lawful  to  join 
in  the  Common  Prayer  in  public  assemblies,  and 
practised  accordingly,  and  endeavoured  to  satisfy  others 
concerning  it."*  It  is  curious  to  learn  that  he  believed 
his  views  of  spiritual  religion  formed  the  basis  of  his 
objections  to  conformity;  and  that  when  Dr.  Busby, 
to  whom,  as  his  friend,  he  owed  his  deep  evangelic 
convictions,  said  once,  "  Prythee,  child,  what  made  thee 
a  Nonconformist } "  Henry  replied  to  his  much-loved 
schoolmaster,  "  Truly,  sir,  you  made  me  one,  for  you 
taught  me  those  things  that  hindered  me  from  con- 
forming."t  In  the  mind  of  Philip  Henry  there  existed 
a  strong  disposition  to  conform,  and  the  case  was  the 
same  with  Joseph  Alleine,  and  others.  Many,  who 
had  been  episcopally  ordained,  were  prepared  to  do 
everything  required,  except  one  thing,  giving  an  un- 

literas,  a  quibusdam  Presbyteris  olim  obtentas  jam  penitus  re- 
nuncio,  et  demitto  pro  vanis,"  etc.     ("  Life  of  P.  Henry,"  97.) 
*  "  Life,"  98  et  seq.  t  Ibid.,  11. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  261 

feigned  assent  and  consent  to  all  the  contents  of  the 
Prayer  Book.* 

John  Howe  felt  more  difficulties  than  one  ;  he  had 
not  received  Episcopal  orders,  but  had  been  ordained 
at  Winwick,  in  Lancashire,  by  the  laying  on  of  the 
hands  of  the  Presbytery  ;  on  which  account,  he  used 
to  say,  that  few  had  so  primitive  an  ordination  as 
himself  After  the  Act  had  passed,  Dr.  Wilkins  ex- 
pressed his  surprise  that  "  a  man  of  Howe's  latitude  " 
should  have  stood  out ;  to  which  he  replied,  that  he 
would  gladly  have  remained  in  the  Establishment,  but 
his  latitude  was  the  very  thing  that  made  him  and 
kept  him  a  Nonconformist.  He  said  also,  "  that  he 
could  not  by  any  means  be  fond  of  a  Church,  that  in 
reality  had  no  discipline  at  all,  and  that  he  thought 
that  a  very  considerable  objection  against  the  Esta- 
blishment." In  these  respects  his  difficulties  were 
similar  to  those  of  Philip  Henry.  On  another  occasion, 
when  asked  by  Seth  Ward,  then  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
"  Pray,  sir,  what  hurt  is  there  in  being  tzvice  ordained  1 " 
he  replied,  "  Hurt,  my  lord, — it  hurts  my  understand- 
ing ;  the  thought  is  shocking  ;  it  is  an  absurdity,  since 
nothing  can  have  two  beginnings."  f 

We  can  enter  into  the  struggles  which  agitated  the 
clergy  during  the  three  months  before  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day.  As  the  corn  ripened,  and  the  country  Rector  sat 
with  his  wife  in  their  little  parlour,  as  they  looked  out 
of  the  latticed  window  "on  the  children  chasing  the 
butterflies  in  the  garden,  or  picking  up  daisies  on  the 
glebe,  there  came  the  alternative — "we  7;/wi-/ conform, 
or  leave  all  this  next  August ;  "  and,  as  that  necessity 
stared  the  Incumbent  in  the  face,  it  would  require,  in 

*  Stanford's  "Life  of  Alleine,"  199  ;  Calamy's  "Account,"  558. 
t  Rogers'  "  Life  of  Howe,"  105,  118. 


262  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

some  cases,  a  woman's  quieter  fortitude  to  reinforce  a 
man's  louder  resolve.*  Nor  can  it  be  denied,  that 
means  of  usefulness  to  some  had  brighter  attractions 
than  home  comforts ;  and  that  it  proved  the  hardest 
wrench  of  all  to  break  the  bond  between  the  Christian 
shepherd  and  his  flock.  These  men  had  hearts  as  well 
as  heads  ;  but  in  the  conflict  the  victory  came  from 
their  judgments,  not  their  affections.  I  remember 
visiting  Scotland  when  religious  excitement  had  reached 
a  high  pitch  on  the  eve  of  the  great  Disruption,  and 
spending  an  evening  at  a  pleasant  manse  inhabited  by  an 
able  minister  and  his  accomplished  wife,  both  of  whom 
were  pondering  the  question  of  "  going  out,"  or  "  re- 
maining in  ; "  and  never  can  I  forget  the  look  of  anguish 
with  which  they  alluded  to  the  impending  crisis.  The 
memory  of  that  visit  brings  vividly  to  mind  many  an 
English  parsonage  in  the  year  1662. 

It  required  much  effort  in  the  minds  of  Puritan 
clergymen  to  brace  themselves  up  to  meet  what  w^as 
at  hand.  One  prepared  for  the  crisis  by  preaching  to 
his  congregation  four  successive  Sundays  from  words 
to  the  Hebrew^s  :  "Ye  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of 
your  goods,  knowing  in  yourselves  that  ye  have  in 
heaven  a  better  and  an  enduring  substance."  Another, 
who  had  a  wife  and  ten  children, — "  eleven  strong  argu- 
ments," as  he  said,  for  conformity — remarked,  that  his 
family  must  live  on  the  6th  of  Matthew,  "Take  no 

*  *•  Some  of  the  hungry  expectants  were  bold  enough  to  antici- 
pate the  period  of  ejection,  relying  on  the  Incumbents'  ultimately 
failing  to  qualify  :  and  that  even  the  chicanery  of  the  law  was 
used  to  prevent  their  recovery  of  profits  which  had  actually 
accrued  during  their  incumbency.  Mr.  Meadows  (Incumbent  of 
Ousden)  had  as  his  patron  one  of  kindred  opinions,  who  sympa- 
thized with  his  own  feelings  ;  and,  accordingly,  it  appears  by  his 
accounts,  that  he  was  allowed  to  receive  the  year's  revenue  up  to 
Michaelmas,  1662."     ("  Suffolk  Bartholomeans,"  by  Taylor,  49.) 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  263 

thought  for  your  Hfe,  what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye 
shall  drink  ;  nor  yet  for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put 
on."  A  third,  when  asked  what  he  would  do  with  his 
family,  replied,  "Should  I  have  as  many  children  as 
that  hen  has  chickens,"  pointing  to  one  with  a  numerous 
brood,  "  I  should  not  questio^i  but  God  would  provide 
for  them  all."  * 

Several  of  the  ministers  conferred  or  corresponded 
with  each  other.  A  few  came  to  London  to  know  the 
opinions  of  their  brethren.  Letters  passed  to  and  fro 
as  fast  as  the  post  could  carry  them  ;  and  sheets  full 
of  arguments,  questions,  replies,  and  rejoinders,  were 
conveyed  from  place  to  place.  Stories  respecting  the 
treatment  of  Presbyterian  Chaplains,  the  conduct  of 
the  Bishops  at  the  Savoy,  the  debates  in  Convocation, 
and  the  speeches  in  Parliament,  Sheldon's  management, 
and  Clarendon's  policy,  would  be  freely  told,  not  always 
with  perfect  accuracy.  Ministers  conversed  with  Pres- 
byterian Peers,  and  other  patrons,  and,  it  is  said,  that 
one  of  the  former  being  asked  by  one  of  the  latter 
whether  he  would  conform,  answered,  "That  such 
things  were  required  and  enjoined  as  he  could  not 
swallow,"  and  he  was  "  necessitated  to  march  off,  and 
sound  a  retreat ; "  whereupon  His  Lordship  added, 
Avith  a  sigh,  "  I  wish  it  had  been  otherwise ;  but  they 
were  resolved  either  to  reproach  you,  or  undo  you."  f 
Though  conference  and  correspondence  were  common 
there  existed  no  organized  confederation,  each  took 
his  own  ground  and  pursued  his  own  course.  Many 
a  village  Vicar  stood  alone,  and  his  conduct  proceeded 
from  individual  conscientiousness.  The  ejected  had 
nothing  to  strengthen  and  animate  them,  like  the  un- 

*  Calamy's  "Account,"  557  ;  "  Continuation,"  336. 
t  Calamy's  "Continuation,"  143. 


264  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

derstanding  which  preceded  the  Disruption  in  Scotland, 
nothing  like  the  popular  applause  that  welcomed  it, 
nothing  like  the  eclat  of  the  public  procession  from 
the  House  of  Assembly  in  the  City  of  Edinburgh,  no 
ovation  soothed  the  cast-out.  The  feast  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew became  a  fast,  as  in  the  Valley  of  Megiddon, 
so  in  Puritan  England,  "  The  land  mourned,  every 
family  apart." 

As  August  approached,  reports  of  disaffection  in- 
creased in  gravity.  In  July,  an  idea  was  current  that 
Cromwell's  soldiers  were  waiting  to  learn  what  the 
Presbyterians  would  do,  being  themselves  ready  to 
rekindle  the  flames  of  revolution.  From  various  parts 
of  the  country  came  news  of  refractory  trained  bands, 
of  gunsmiths  preparing  arms,  and  of  ministers  talking 
treason.  Rumour  declared  there  was  to  be  a  general 
rising  in  a  few  weeks.  At  all  events,  within  two  years 
of  the  Restoration,  the  joy  of  seeing  a  crowned  head 
once  more,  had  given  way.  People  began,  not  only  to 
ask  what  advantage  had  accrued  from  the  King's 
return,  but  they  also  began  to  institute  comparisons 
between  the  Long  Parliament  and  that  which  was 
now  sitting.  De  Wiquefort,  the  Dutch  Minister,  in  a 
despatch  dated  the  14th  of  May,  informed  his  Govern- 
ment, that  the  chimney  tax  could  not  be  levied  with- 
out much  trouble,  and  that  Parliament,  "which  had 
been  the  idol  of  the  nation,  was  now  sinking  in  popular 
respect."* 

Several  sources  of  discontent  can  be  pointed  out. 
The  licentiousness  and  extravagance  of  the  Court  were 
passing  all  bounds  ;  even  such  of  the  Cavaliers  as  com- 
bined with  their  hatred  of  Puritan  precision  some 
regard  for  outward  decency,  were  shocked  at  the  stories 
*  "  State  Papers,"  May  14th, 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  265 

of  the  mad  revelries  and  shameless  debauchery  of 
Whitehall  ;  many  individuals  had  been  beggared  in  the 
Royal  service,  and  now  they  saw  themselves  totally 
neglected  by  the  Prince  in  whose  cause  they  had  sacri- 
ficed their  property  and  shed  their  blood.  To  replenish 
an  empty-  exchequer,  the  Government  effected  the  sale 
of  Dunkirk,  a  town  won  by  the  valour  of  Cromwell.  It 
wounded  the  national  honour,  and  roused  popular  in- 
dignation, to  see  the  keys  of  that  fortress  put  into  the 
hands  of  Louis  XIV.  for  a  sum  of  money ;  and  also  to 
see  Tangier,  a  useless  possession,  part  of  the  dowry  of 
Queen  Catherine,  carefully  preserved  at  a  large  cost. 
To  add  to  the  trouble,  Popery  was  said  to  be  on  the 
increase,  especially  through  proceedings  at  Somerset 
House,  where  the  Queen  Mother  Henrietta  kept  her 
Court,  gathered  round  her  the  English  Roman  Catholics, 
and  encouraged  the  intrigues  of  Jesuits  and  priests. 
Charles  and  his  Council  did  not  learn  the  whole  truth, 
they  only  caught  glimpses  of  some  wild  phantasma- 
goria, with  the  great  Gorgon-head  of  insurrection  in  the 
midst  of  all ;  and,  therefore,  instead  of  striving  to  see 
what  could  be  done  to  re-establish  confidence,  he  and 
his  Ministers  set  to  work  to  demolish  fortifications  at 
Northampton,  at  Gloucester,  and  at  other  places,  and 
to  issue  instructions  to  Lieutenants  of  Counties  to  take 
precautions  against  rebellion.* 

Numbers  of  political  papers  and  tracts  appeared 
expressing  uneasiness.  Much  authority  cannot  be 
attached  to  such  a  random  writer  as  Roger  L'Estrange  ; 
but  when  he  states  that  not  so  few  as  200,000  copies  of 
seditious  works  had  been  printed  "  since  the  blessed 
return  of  his  sacred  Majesty,"  and  that  to  these  were  to 
be  added  new  editions  of  old  ones  to  the  amount  of 
*  "State  Papers,"  1661-62. 


266  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

millions  more,*  we  are  justified  in  believing  that  the 
printers  were  kept  very  busy  by  people  of  the  kind  so 
much  detested  by  this  pamphleteer,  nor  do  I  doubt 
that,  as  he  says,  the  publications  "  were  contrived  and 
penned  with  accurate  care  and  cunning  to  catch  all 
humours."  On  the  other  side,  the  Church  and  State 
party  did  not  sit  with  folded  hands,  Roger's  own  fiery 
pen  being  unceasingly  employed  in  the  laudation  of 
King,  Church,  and  Bishops,  and  in  vilifying  Round- 
heads, Republicans,  and  all  Sectaries.  Some  authors 
mingled  in  the  mclcc  after  a  very  equivocal  fashion, 
drawing  "  a  parallel  betwixt  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
fanatics,"  so  as  to  place  in  company  with  Anabaptists, 
Quakers,  and  Independents,  not  only  the  Lollards,  but 
even  Hugh  Latimer,  thus  striking  a  blow  at  Noncon- 
formity through  the  side  of  the  Reformation.f  Much 
more  effective  than  abuse  and  satire,  were  papers, 
printed  ready  for  Bartholomew's  Day,  giving  "  a  brief 
martyrology  and  catalogue  of  the  learned,  grave, 
religious,  and  painful  ministers  of  the  City  of  London, 
who  were  deprived,  imprisoned,  and  plundered,  during 
the  Commonwealth."  The  persecution  of  the  Episco- 
palians afforded  a  strong  point  against  the  Noncon- 
formists, especially  before  it  could  be  met  by  a  long  list 
of  ejected  Nonconformists.  Names  of  Episcopalians 
said  to  have  been  reviled,  and  forced  to  resign,  and 
"  compelled  to  fly  " — "  violated,  assaulted,  abused  in  the 
streets,"  and  imprisoned  in  "  the  Compter,  Ely  House, 
Newgate,  and  the  ships  " — furnished  so  many  argu- 
ments for  severe  measures  against  those  who  were 
charged  with  such  indefensible  persecutions. 

*  "Truth  and  Loyalty  Vindicated,"  1662. 

t  "Had.  Misc.,"  VII.     If  the  author  of  this  tract  was  not  a 
Romanist  he  had  strong  Romanist  sympathies. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  267 

No  Sunday  in  England  ever  resembled  exactly  that 
which  fell  on  the  17th  of  August,  1662 — one  week 
before  the  feast  of  St.  Bartholomew.  There  have  been 
"mourning,  lamentation,  and  Avoe,"  in  particular  parish 
churches  when  death,  persecution,  or  some  other  cause 
has  broken  pastoral  ties,  and  severed  from  loving  con- 
gregations their  spiritual  guides  ;  but  for  many  hun- 
dreds of  ministers  on  the  same  day  to  be  uttering  fare- 
wells is  an  unparalleled  circumstance.  In  after  years, 
Puritan  fathers  and  mothers  related  to  their  children 
the  story  of  assembled  crowds,  of  aisles,  standing-places, 
and  stairs,  filled  to  suffocation,  of  people  clinging  to 
open  windows  like  swarms  of  bees,  of  overflowing 
throngs  in  churchyards  and  streets,  of  deep  silence 
or  stifled  sobs, 'as  the  flock  gazed  on  the  shepherd — 
"  sorrowing  most  of  all  that  they  should  see  his  face 
no  more." 

Pepys,  who  liked  to  see  and  hear  everything  which 
was  going  on,  walked  to  old  St.  Dunstan's  Church,  at 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  but  found  the  doors  un- 
opened. He  took  a  turn  in  the  Temple  Gardens  until 
eight,  when,  on  coming  back  to  the  church,  he  saw 
people  crowding  in  at  a  side  door,  and  found  the  edifice 
half  filled,  ere  the  principal  entrance  had  been  opened. 
Dr.  Bates,  minister  of  the  church,  took  for  his  text — 
"  Now  the  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from  the 
dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep, 
through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  make 
you  perfect."  "  He  making  a  very  good  sermon," 
reports  the  Secretary,  "  and  very  little  reflections  in  it 
to  anything  of  the  times."  After  dinner,  the  gossip 
went  to  St.  Dunstan's  again,  to  hear  a  second  sermon 
from  the  same  preacher  upon  the  same  text.  Arriving 
at  the  church,  about  one  o'clock,  he  found  it  thronged, 


268  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

and  had  to  stand  during  the  whole  of  the  service.  Not 
until  the  close  of  this  second  homily,  did  the  preacher 
make  any  distinct  allusion  to  his  ejectment,  and  then  it 
was  in  terms  the  most  concise  and  temperate.  "  I 
know  you  expect  I  should  say  something  as  to  my 
nonconformity.  I  shall  only  say  thus  much,  it  is  neither 
fancy,  faction,  nor  humour,  that  makes  me  not  to 
comply,  but  merely  for  fear  of  offending  God.  And  if 
after  the  best  means  used  for  my  illumination,  as 
prayer  to  God,  discourse,  study,  I  am  not  able  to  be 
satisfied  concerning  the  lawfulness  of  what  is  required  ; 
if  it  be  my  unhappiness  to  be  in  error,  surel}'-  men  will 
have  no  reason  to  be  angry  with  me  in  this  world,  and 
I  hope  God  will  pardon  me  in  the  next."  * 

Dr.  Jacomb  occupied  his  pulpit  in  St.  Martin's, 
Ludgate.  It  would  seem,  from  his  remarks,  that  he 
did  not  expect  it  to  be  the  last  pastoral  discourse  he 
would  deliver ;  but  I  am  unable  to  say  whether  the 
hope  he  had  of  preaching  to  his  parishioners  again, 
arose  from  an  idea  that  the  law  would  be  mitigated. 
"  Let  me,"  he  said,  "  require  this  of  you,  to  pass  a 
charitable  interpretation  upon  our  laying  down  the 
exercise  of  our  ministry."  "  I  censure  none  that  differ 
from  me,  as  though  they  displease  God  :  but  yet,  as  to 
myself,  should  I  do  thus  and  thus,  I  should  certainly 
violate  the  peace  of  my  own  conscience,  and  offend 
God,  which  I  must  not  do,  no,  not  to  secure  my 
ministry ;  though  that  either  is,  or  ought  to  be  dearer 
to  me  than  my  very  life  ;  and  how  dear  it  is,  God  only 
knoweth."t 

In  the  Cambridge  University  Library^  is  the  copy  of 

*  "A  Compleat  Collection  of  Farewell  Sermons,"  142  :  Pepys' 
"Diary,"!.  313. 
t  "Farewell  Sermons/'  115.        %  "Patrick  MSS."  XLIV.  11. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  269 

"A  Prayer  of  a  Nonconformist  before  his  Sermon, 
which  was  preached  to  an  eminent  Congregation, 
August,  1662."  The  prayer  is  long,  and  consists  chiefly 
of  confession  of  sin  and  of  supplication  for  spiritual 
blessings  ;  the  only  passages  which  seem  to  refer  to 
existing  circumstances  are  the  two  following,  "  It  is  the 
Spirit  that  makes  ordinances  efficacious,  although  Thou 
art  pleased  to  tye  us  to  them,  when  we  may  purely 
enjoy  them,  yet  Thou  dost  not  tye  Thyself  to  them." 
"  Bring  our  hearts  to  our  estates,  if  not  our  estates  to  our 
hearts.  It  is  the  happiness  of  the  saints  in  heaven  to 
have  their  estates  brought  to  their  hearts ;  but  the 
happiness  of  the  saints  on  earth  to  have  their  hearts 
brought  to  their  estates." 

The  Fire  of  London  swept  away  so  many  of  the  old 
City  churches  that  we  are  unable  to  picture  the 
localities  where  the  City  ministers  preached,  what  they 
called,  their  own  funeral  sermons  ;  but  it  is  otherwise 
in  the  provinces.  Every  one  who  has  entered  the  Vale 
of  Taunton,  and  tarried  in  the  town  from  which  it  takes 
its  name,  must  have  lingered  under  the  shadow  of  the 
noble  Church  of  St.  Mary,  and  longer  still  within  its 
spacious  nave,  some  time  since  restored  with  exquisite 
taste.  In  1662  the  town  had  just  had  its  walls  razed, 
as  a  punishment  for  what  the  inhabitants  did  in  the 
Civil  Wars  ;  the  bones  of  their  townsman  Blake  had 
been  dug  out  of  his  grave  in  Westminster  Abbey,  old 
Puritan  members  of  the  Corporation  had  been  dis- 
placed for  new  ones  of  Cavalier  sympathies  and  now, 
with  bitter  recollections,  the  nonconforming  parishioners 
entered  the  Church  on  the  17th  of  August,  to  listen  for 
the  last  time  to  their  minister,  George  Newton,  "a  noted 
gospeller,"  and  remarkable  for  his  missionary  zeal. 
"As  to  the  particular  Divine  providence,"  he  said  "now 


270  RELIGION-  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

ending  our  ministry  among  you,  whatever  happeneth 
on  this  account,  let  it  be  your  exercise  to  cry  out  for 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  He  will  grant  you  a 
greater  support  than  you  may  expect  from  any  man 
whatever.  .  .  .  The  withdrawing  of  this  present  ministry 
may  be  to  cause  you  to  pray  for  this  Holy  Spirit,  day 
and  night ;  and  Christ  promiseth  that  the  Father  will 
give  it  to  them  that  ask  it.  ...  If  I  cannot  serve  God 
one  way,  let  me  not  be  discouraged,  but  be  more 
earnest  in  another."* 

The  quiet  little  town  of  Beer  Regis,  in  Dorsetshire, 
retains  its  ancient  church,  with  its  square  tower  and 
pinnacles,  dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Baptist.  The 
living,  in  conjunction  with  that  of  Charmouth,  formed 
the  golden  prebend  of  Salisbury  Cathedral.  How 
much  of  the  income  of  the  stall  belonged  to  the  Incum- 
bent under  the  Commonwealth  I  do  not  know,  but  the 
Incumbency  must  have  been  of  a  description  strongly 
to  tempt  Philip  Lamb,  who  then  held  it,  to  comply 
with  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  had  he  been  a  worldly- 
minded  man.f  But  his  farewell  teaching  proves  him 
to  have  been  above  the  reach  of  such  temptations. 
Like  other  discourses  at  the  same  time,  his  was  full  of 
spiritual  instruction  and  earnest  appeal ;  the  follow- 
ing allusion  being  made  to  the  event  of  the  day  : 
"For  now  I  must  tell  you,  that  perhaps  you  may 
not  see  my  face,  or  hear  my  voice  any  more  in  this 
place ;  yet  not  out  of  any  peevish  humour,  or  dis- 
affection to  the  present  authority  of  the  kingdom  (I 
call  God  and  man  to  witness  this  day),  it  being  my 
own  practice  and  counsel  to  you  all,  to  fear  God  and 

*  Stanford's  "Joseph  Alleine,"  200. 

t  Calamy  speaks  of  his  holding  this  hving  in  conjunction  with 
Kingston.     ("  Account,"  279.) 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  271 

jL0ii02Lr  the  King;  but  rather  a  real  dissatisfaction  in 
some  particulars  imposed,  to  which  (notwithstanding 
all  endeavours  to  that  purpose)  my  conscience  cannot 
yet  be  espoused."* 

The  week  between  the  17th  and  24th  of  August 
proved  an  eventful  one.  Charles  had  been  married  in 
the  previous  May  to  Catherine  of  Braganza  ;  a  match 
which,  though  formally  approved  by  the  Privy  Council 
and  by  Parliament,  because  of  her  dowry,  and  of  the 
possession  of  Tangier,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  of 
Bombay,  in  the  East  Indies,  and  of  a  free  trade  with 
Portugal  and  its  colonies,  was,  because  of  the  bride's 
religion,  hateful  to  the  English,  in  proportion  as  they 
hated  Popery.  The  day  before  her  reception,  the  King 
issued  a  Proclamation,  addressed  to  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  Sheriffs  of  London.  He  took  "  hold  of  this  occa- 
sion of  public  joy,  on  the  first  coming  of  the  Queen  to 
the  Royal  Palace  of  Westminster,  to  order  the  release 
of  Quakers  and  others,  in  gaol,  in  London  and  Mid- 
dlesex, for  being  present  at  unlawful  assemblies,  who 
yet  profess  all  obedience  and  allegiance  ;  provided  they 
are  not  indicted  for  refusing  the  Oath  of  Allegiance,  nor 
have  been  ringleaders  nor  preachers  at  their  assemblies, 
hoping  thereby  to  reduce  them  to  a  better  conformity."! 
The  Quakers,  George  Fox  and  Richard  Hubberthorn, 
had  just  before  addressed  the  King  as  "  Friend," 
and  sent  His  Majesty  a  list  of  "three  thousand  one 
hundred  and  seventy-three  persons  "  who  had  suffered 
for  conscience'  sake.  "  There  have  been  also  imprisoned 
in  thy  name,"  add  these  plain-spoken  memorialists, 
"  three  thousand  sixty  and  eight."  "  Now  this  we 
would  have  of  thee,  to  set  them  at  liberty  that  lie  in 

*  "  Farewell  Sermons,"  447. 

t  "  State  Papers,"  August  22,  1662. 


272  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  YII. 

prison,  in  the  names  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  of  the 
two  Protectors,  and  them  that  He  in  thy  own  name,  for 
speaking  the  truth."*  How  far  this  appeal  influenced 
Charles  in  his  act  of  grace  now  performed  I  cannot  say, 
nor  does  it  appear  how  clemency  towards  a  despised 
sect  tended  to  gratify  the  country  at  large,  which  on 
such  an  occasion  he  might  naturally  wish  to  do. 
Perhaps,  being  fond  of  exercising  a  dispensing  power, 
this  proceeding  might  afford  some  gratification  to  him- 
self;  and  as  to  the  selection  of  objects,  he  had  a  liking 
for  Quakers,  on  account  of  what  he  regarded  their 
harmlessness  and  oddity.  He  had  no  fear  of  their 
arming  themselves  against  his  throne  ;  and  to  quiz  their 
dress  and  their  speech,  seemed  to  his  frivolous  taste,  a 
piece  of  real  fun. 

On  Saturday,  the  23rd  of  August,  Catherine  reached 
Whitehall,  and  the  citizens  of  London,  ever  prompt  in 
their  loyalty  on  such  occasions,  gave  "  a  large  demon- 
stration of  their  duty  and  affection  to  the  King's  and 
Queen's  Majesty  on  the  River  Thames."  The  Mercers, 
the  Drapers,  the  Merchant  Taylors,  and  the  Goldsmiths, 
appeared  in  stately  barges,  their  pageantry  and  that  of 
the  Lord  Mayor  outpeering  the  rest  of  the  brilliant 
regatta.  Music  floated  from  bands  on  deck,  and 
thundering  peals  roared  from  pieces  of  ordnance  on 
shore.  Their  Majesties  came  in  an  antique-shaped, 
open  vessel,  covered  with  a  cupola-like  canopy  of  cloth 
of  gold,  supported  by  Corinthian  pillars,  wreathed  with 
festoons  and  garlands  of  flowers,  the  pageant  exceed- 
ing, as  John  Evelyn  remarked,  who  was  sailing  near, 
all  the  Venetian  Bucentoi^as,  in  which,  on  Ascension 
Day,  the  Doge  was  wont,  with  a  golden  ring,  to  wed 
the  fair  Adriatic.  The  spectacle  on  the  w^ater-highway 
*  Fox's  "Journal/'  II.  7. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  273 

presented  a  contrast  to  the  experiences  in  many  par- 
sonages throughout  broad  England  ;  and  it  is  remark- 
able, that  just  then  certain  persons  were  engaged  in 
solemnities  more  in  accordance  with  Nonconformist 
depression.  Edward  Calamy  that  very  Saturday 
preached  a  sermon  at  St.  Austin's  Church,  in  London, 
for  Father  Ash  (the  old  man  who  shed  tears  of  joy  over 
Charles'  early  promises),  from  the  words  "  The  righteous 
perisheth,  and  no  man  layeth  it  to  heart  ;  and  merciful 
men  are  taken  away,  none  considering  that  the  righteous 
is  taken  away  from  the  evil  to  come," — words  befitting 
the  interment  of  a  Puritan  patriarch  on  Bartholomew's 
eve.  Discoursing  on  his  text,  the  preacher  reminded 
his  audience  how  Methuselah  died,  a  year  before  the 
flood  ;  Austin  died  a  little  before  Hippo  was  taken  ; 
and  Luther  died  just  as  the  wars  in  Germany  were 
about  to  begin.  He  might  have  added,  that  Blaise 
Pascal,  who  died  the  preceding  Tuesday,  August  19th, 
had  been  removed  just  as  the  agony  of  the  crisis  came, 
in  the  history  of  the  Port  Royalists.* 

By  a  further  coincidence,  the  same  day  on  which 
Ash  was  buried  in  London,  Edward  Bowles,  a  distin- 
guished Nonconformist,  breathed  his  last  in  the  City 
of  York.  He  had  just  been  elected  Vicar  of  Leeds, 
but  his  Nonconformity  would  have  disqualified  him 
from  entering  on  the  benefice,  had  not  his  Master  called 
him  to  a  better  preferment  and  a  nobler  ministry. 

When  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  arrived,  the  Noncon- 
formist clergy  who  had  not  before  taken  leave  of  their 
flocks,  uttered  their  farewells.  Thomas  Lye,  Rector  of 
Allhallows,  London,  whose   catechetical  lectures   had 

*  "  The  eight  years,  from  the  death  of  Angelique  Arnauld,  in 
1661,  to  the  peace  of  the  Church  in  1669,  were  the  agony  of  Port 
Royal."     (Beard's  "  Port  Royal,"  I.  344.) 

VOL.  III.  T 


274  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII. 

made  him  very  popular  with  the  youthful  members  of 
Puritan  families,  preached  twice  from  the  words — 
"  Therefore  my  brethren,  dearly  beloved  and  longed 
for,  my  joy  and  crown,  so  stand  fast  in  the  Lord,  my 
dearly  beloved."  Lye  mentioned  in  his  morning- 
address,  that  he  had  been  ejected  on  the  24th  of 
August,  165 1,  because  he  would  not  swear  against  the 
King.  Now,  on  the  24th  of  August,  1662,  he  was 
ejected  for  a  very  different  reason.  But  he  did  not 
repine.  "  By  way  of  exhortation,"  said  the  preacher, 
"  I  remember  good  Jacob  when  he  was  come  into 
Egypt,  ready  to  die,  calls  his  children  together,  and 
before  he  dies,  he  blesseth  his  children.  O  beloved,  I 
have  a  few  blessings  for  you,  and,  for  God's  sake,  take 
them  as  if  they  dropt  from  my  lips  when  dying.  What- 
ever others  think,  I  am  utterly  against  all  irregular 
ways  ;  I  have  (I  bless  the  Lord)  never  had  a  hand  in 
any  change  of  Government  in  all  my  life ;  I  am  for 
prayers,  tears,  quietness,  submission,  and  meekness, 
and  let  God  do  His  work,  and  that  will  be  best  done 
when  He -doth  it."*  Another  instance  of  ejectment 
occurred  the  same  day  under  different  circumstances. 
Robert  Atkins,  in  the  month  of  September,  1660,  had 
been  dismissed  from  the  choir  of  Exeter  Cathedral,  the 
part  of  the  edifice  appropriated  to  the  Presbyterians, — 
"Church  music,"  to  use  his  own  words,  "jostling  out 
the  constant  preaching  of  the  Word,  the  minister 
being  obliged  to  give  place  to  the  chorister  and  hun- 
dreds, yea  thousands,  to  seek  where  to  hear  a  sermon 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  rather  than  singing  service  should 
be  omitted,  or  not  kept  up  in  its  ancient  splendour  and 
glory."  Driven  at  the  Restoration  from  East  Peter's, 
he  found  refuge  in  the  parish  church  of  St.  John,  an 

*  "Farewell  Sermons,"  etc.,  174,  187. 


16G2.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  275 

instance  which  shows  that  nonconforming  clergymen 
might  lose  one  living  and  gain  another,  between  the 
King's  return  and  the  execution  of  the  Act.  From  St. 
John's,  he  was  ejected  in  August,  and  then  he  preached 
a  sermon  in  which,  rising  above  all  such  narrowness 
as  prompted  the  depreciation  of  cathedral  music,  he 
caught  ennobling  inspirations,  and  employed  only  words 
of  loyalty  and  love.  "  Let  him  never  be  accounted 
a  sound  Christian  that  doth  not  both  fear  God  and 
honour  the  King.  I  beg  that  you  would  not  interpret 
our  Nonconformity  to  be  an  act  of  unpeaceableness  and 
disloyalty.  We  will  do  anything  for  His  Majesty  but 
sin.  We  will  hazard  anything  for  him  but  our  souls. 
We  hope  we  could  die  for  him,  only  we  dare  not  be 
damned  for  him.  We  make  no  question,  however  we 
may  be  accounted  of  here,  we  shall  be  found  loyal 
and  obedient  subjects  at  our  appearance  before  God's 
tribunal."  * 

Another  day  they  had  to  quit  the  parsonage.f  No 
poet  that  I  am  aware  of,  has  made  the  Bartholomew 
Exodus  a  theme  for  his  muse,  but  the  well-known  lines 
in  Goldsmith's  "  Deserted  Village  "  may  be  accommo- 
dated to  the  incident. 

"  Good  heaven  !  what  sorrows  gloom'd  that  parting  day, 
That  call'd  them  from  their  native  walks  away, 
When  the  poor  exiles,  every  pleasure  past, 
Hung  round  the  bowers,  and  fondly  look'd  their  last. 
With  loudest  plaints  the  mother  spoke  her  woes, 
And  blest  the  cot  where  every  pleasure  rose, 


*  Palmer's  "  Nonconformist  Memorial,"  I.  366. 

t  "A  liberal  attention  to  the  convenience  of  the  late  Incumbent 
must  have  been  shown  by  Mr.  Meadows's  successor,  as  we  find  so 
late  as  July  8,  1665,  '  a  note  of  things  yet  left  at  the  parsonage.' " 
Mr.  Meadows  was  Incumbent  of  Ousden,  Suffolk.  ("Suffolk 
Bartholomeans,"  by  Taylor,  50.) 


276  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [CnAr.  VTI. 

And  kiss'd  her  thoughtless  babes  with  many  a  tear, 
And  clasp'd  them  close,  in  sorrow  doubly  dear  ; 
While  her  fond  husband  strove  to  lend  relief, 
In  all  the  silent  manliness  of  grief." 

Some  persons  can  allow  no  excuse  for  Puritans  who 
conformed.  Because  Nonconformity  under  the  circum- 
stances appears  to  these  persons  a  plain  obligation, 
they  suppose  it  must  have  appeared  equally  plain  to 
everybody  entertaining  evangelical  views  like  their 
own.  But  if  we  exclude  all  Puritan  Conformists  from 
the  benefit  of  charitable  allowance,  on  the  score  of 
temptation,  if  we  dismiss  all  thought  of  the  medium 
through  which,  owing  to  circumstances,  they  were  likely 
to  contemplate  their  own  case,  then  we  diminish  our 
estimate  of  the  clear-sighted  judgment,  the  unpreju- 
diced resolves,  and  the  self-sacrificing  heroism  of  those 
Puritans  who  in  a  crisis  of  extraordinary  difficulty, 
pursued  the  course  they  did.  When  Nonconformists 
discover  considerations  which  mitigate  the  censure  of 
some  who  conformed,  they  must  all  the  more  admire 
those  who,  rising  above  motives  which  spring  from  self- 
interest,  from  example,  from  persuasion,  and  from  pre- 
judice, were,  through  a  sense  of  duty,  led  to  sacrifice  so 
much  which  they  held  dear." 

The  ejected  differed  from  each  other  in  many  re- 
spects :  not  more  unlike  are  cedars  and  firs,  oaks  and 
ashes,  the  elm  and  the  ivy.  Some  were  bold  and  stern, 
of  rugged  nature  and  robust  strength ;  others  were 
gentle  and  dependent,  relying  on  friends  for  counsel 
and  example.  Some  were  rigid  and  ascetic  ;  others 
frank  and  genial.  They  included  Presbyterians,  Inde- 
pendents, Baptists,  and  not  a  few  whom  it  would  be 
difficult  to  reduce  entirely  under  any  of  those  denomi- 
nations,  also,    Calvinists   and   Arminians,   with   other 


1662.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  277 

Divines  scarcely  belonging  to  either  of  those  schools. 
As  to  learning,  eloquence,  reasoning,  and  imagination, 
the  men  varied  ;  but  under  all  their  peculiarities  lay  a 
common  faith  of  no  ordinary  character,  a  faith  of  that 
rare  kind  which  makes  the  confessor.  They  believed 
in  God,  in  Christ,  in  truth,  in  Heaven  ;  and  in  the  con- 
troversy which  they  carried  on,  they  regarded  them- 
selves as  fighting  for  a  Divine  cause.  People  may 
think  some  of  these  ministers  made  too  much  of  wear- 
ing a  surplice,  using  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  bowing 
at  the  name  of  Jesus  ;  but  such  things  were  considered 
by  them  as  having  a  significance  beyond  themselves. 
They  were,  by  the  ejected,  judged  to  be  signs  of  a 
corrupted  Christianity,  banners  of  an  adverse  army, 
flags  of  which  the  importance  did  not  consist  in  the 
silk,  the  crimson,  and  the  gold,  but  in  the  import  of  the 
emblazoned  device.  What  might  seem  trifles  to  others, 
were  in  their  estimation  the  marks  of  a  ceremonial,  as 
opposed  to  a  spiritual,  of  a  legal  as  opposed  to  an 
evangelical  Christianity.  They  believed,  right  or  wrong, 
that  it  was  in  the  defence  of  the  Gospel  they  were 
acting  as  they  did.  A  strong  evangelical  faith  upheld 
their  ecclesiastical  opinions,  like  the  rocks  which  form 
the  ribs  and  backbone  of  this  grand  old  world. 

The  Church  of  England  suffered  no  small  loss  when 
she  lost  such  men.  So  far  as  extreme  Anglo-Catholics 
on  the  one  hand,  and  extreme  Presbyterians  on  the 
other  were  concerned,  union  was  impossible ;  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  in  the  conferences  at 
Worcester  House  and  the  Savoy,  nothing  more  was 
sought  by  the  Puritans  than  a  moderate  Episcopacy  ; 
and,  as  already  noticed,  Baxter  declared,  that  to  the 
best  of  his  knowledge  the  Presbyterian  cause  was  never 
spoken  for,  nor  were  they  ever  heard  to  petition  for  it 


278  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIT. 

at  all.  There  can  be  no  question  that  there  were 
amongst  the  ejected  many  exemplary  ministers,  who 
would  have  been  perfectly  satisfied  with  such  conces- 
sions, as  moderate  Episcopalians  might  have  conscien- 
tiously sanctioned. 

The  great  change  having  been  accomplished,  the 
King  commanded  directions  to  be  sent  to  the  clergy 
respecting  their  preaching.  They  were  forbidden  to 
meddle  with  matters  of  State,  or  to  discuss  speculative 
points  in  theology,  but  were  enjoined  to  catechise  the 
young,  to  read  the  canons,  and  to  promote  the  obser- 
vance of  the  Lord's  Day.* 

*  October,  1662,  Wilkins' "  Concilia,"  IV.  577. 


1662.]         THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  279 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

When  the  Act  had  taken  effect,  some  of  the  Presby- 
terians looked  for  a  mitigation  of  its  severity.  Those 
who  lived  in  London,  and  were  upon  terms  of  friendship 
with  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  and  other  Puritan  noble- 
men, trusting  to  their  influence  at  Court,  resolved  to 
make  an  effort  to  obtain  redress.  Calamy,  Manton, 
and  Bates,  the  leaders  of  this  forlorn  hope,  prepared  a 
petition,  numerously  signed  by  London  pastors.  It 
spoke  of  His  Majesty's  indulgence,  and  besought  him, 
in  his  princely  wisdom  and  compassion,  to  take  some 
effectual  course,  whereby  they  might  be  continued  in 
the  exercise  of  their  office.*  Whatever  might  be  the 
effect  of  the  petition,  Clarendon  admits  that  the  King 
made  a  positive  promise  to  do  what  the  ministers 
desired.f  At  this  time  the  nobility  had  gone  down  to 
their  country-seats  to  enjoy  the  summer  months  ;  the 
Bishops  generally  were  engaged  in  their  visitations. 
Charles,  at  Hampton  Court,  was  joking  with  his  lords, 
toying  with  his  mistresses,  rambling  in  the  green  alleys, 
lounging  in  the  cool  saloons,  watching  games  in  the 
tennis-court,  and  feeding  the  ducks  in  the  broad  ponds. 

*  Newcome  notices  the  petition  in  his  Diary,  as  if  an  un- 
successful attempt  had  been  made  to  present  it  before  the  28th. 

t  A  passage  in  the  "Entry  Book,  Cal.,  Dom.,  1661-62,"  57S, 
indicates  the  interference  of  the  King  with  the  operation  of  the 
Act. 


28o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  YIIL 

However  unwilling  to  attend  to  business,  he  found 
that  a  Council  must  be  held.  The  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury and  the  Bishops  of  London  and  Winchester 
were  therefore  summoned,  together  with  Chief  Justice 
Bridgman,  and  the  Attorney-General,  the  Duke  of 
Ormond,  and  the  Secretaries  of  State.  The  King's 
promise  was  communicated  to  the  Council.  "  The 
Bishops  were  very  much  troubled  that  tJiosc  fellozvs 
should  still  presume  to  give  His  Majesty  so  much 
vexation,  and  that  they  should  have  such  access  to 
him."  As  for  themselves,  they  desired  "  to  be  excused 
for  not  conniving  in  any  degree  at  the  breach  of  the 
Act  of  Parliament,  either  by  not  presenting  a  clerk 
where  themselves  were  patrons,  or  deferring  to  give 
institution  upon  the  presentation  of  others  ;  and  that 
His  Majesty's  giving  such  a  declaration  or  recom- 
mendation, would  be  the  greatest  wound  to  the  Church, 
and  to  the  government  thereof,  that  it  could  receive."  * 
Sheldon  vehemently  urged,  that  it  was  now  too  late 
to  alter  what  had  been  done,  the  Sunday  before  he 
had  ejected  those  who  would  not  subscribe,  the  King, 
therefore,  had  provoked  them,  and  now  to  include  them 
in  the  Church  would  be  to  put  his  head  in  the  lion's 
mouth.  He  further  urged  that  resolutions  of  Council 
could  not  justify  contempt  for  an  Act  of  Parhament. 
The  argument  is  thoroughly  constitutional,  and  so  far 
Sheldon  appears  right  ;  but  before  he  completed  his 
speech,  he  manifested  his  real  spirit  by  contending,  that 
if  the  importunity  of  disaffected  people  were  a  reason 
for  humouring  them,  neither  Church  nor  State  would 
ever  be  free  from  disturbance.! 

*  Clarendon's  "Continuation,"  10S1-10S2. 

t  It   is   difficult   to   harmonize   satisfactorily  the   accounts   of 
conferences  and  councils  given  by  Burnet,  Clarendon,  and  Bishop 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION  281 

The  operation  of  the  Act,  the  petition  of  ministers, 
and  the  discussions  in  Council,  were  soon  the  topic  of 
newspapers,  and  the  talk  of  the  country,  and  great 
credit  was  given  for  the  "  care  and  prudence  of  the  most 
worthy  diocesan  "  of  London,  in  filling  up  the  numerous 
vacancies.  It  was  reported,  that  at  Northampton,  "  all 
except  two  or  three  "  conformed  ;  that  at  Gloucester 
there  was  "  scarcely  a  man  "  who  did  not  subscribe  ; 
and  that  at  Newport,  an  instance  occurred  of  a  building 
erected  by  Nonconformists  being  seized  and  appro- 
priated for  Episcopal  worship.  We  find  it  also  stated 
that  in  the  City  of  Chester,  Nonconformists  preached 
on  the  24th  of  August,  though  cautioned  against  it  by 
the  Bishop  ;  and  that  the  following  Sunday  they  being 
displaced,  and  other  ministers  being  appointed,  the 
Presbyterians  still  came  to  the  parish  service  ;  and  that 
in  Northumberland,  there  were  "  only  three  disaffected 
ministers,  Scotchmen,  who  quietly  left  their  livings, 
and  crossed  the  Tweed."  The  High  Church  part}- 
believed  the  Act  to  be  popular,  and  Nonconformity  to 
be  an  insignificant  affair,  a  mere  puff  of  smoke,  which 
a  moment's  wind  would  blow  away.  Episcopal  visita- 
tions created  much  enthusiasm.  All  the  gentry  went 
out  to  meet  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  with  one  thousand 
horse,  and  foot  without  number,  and  many  coaches  ; 
City  music  sounded  from  the  top  of  Guildhall,  and  the 
Bishop  drove  up  to  the  Deanery  amidst  the  firing  of 
guns.  At  Chippenham,  like  honours  saluted  the  Bishop 
of  Salisbury.*  Rumours  of  another  kind  floated  in  other 
quarters.    William  Hook,  an  Independent,  who  had  been 

Parker.     Compare  Clarendon,  loSi  ;  Burnet,  I.  191  ;  with  Parker 
in  Rennet's  "  Register,"  753. 

*  These  ilhistrations  are  gathered  from  the  newspapers  of  the 
day. 


282  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

ejected  from  the  Savoy,  informed  an  American  corre- 
spondent, that  after  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  there  were 
few  communicants  at  the  churches,  "  only  ten,  twenty, 
or  forty,  where  there  were  20,000  persons  more  than 
sixteen  years  old  ;  and  on  festival  days  only  the  parsons 
and  three  or  four  at  their  devotions."  *  It  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  Hook,  any  more  than  his  contemporaries, 
gave  himself  much  trouble  in  sifting  evidence,  still  pro- 
bably there  may  be  some  truth  in  what  he  says.  Beyond 
idle  rumours,  however,  certain  facts  are  established. 
For  example,  St.  Mary's  Church,  at  Taunton,  was 
closed  for  several  weeks  successively,  and  although  we 
find  that  afterwards  public  services  were  held  at  rare 
intervals,  it  seems  the  parish  had  no  resident  minister 
for  the  next  nine  months.f 

The  law  bound  every  clergyman  to  subscribe  in  the 
presence  of  his  Archbishop  or  Ordinary,  and  it  may  be 
mentioned  in  illustration,  that  the  Canons  of  St.  George's 
Chapel,  Windsor,  subscribed  before  the  Dean,  he  being 
the  Ordinary  of  the  place  ;  some  of  them,  in  majorcm 
cautioncm,  subscribed  also  before  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  yet  it  was  with  the  proviso,  saving  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  this  free  chapel. f  Some  clergy- 
men, who  ultimately  subscribed,  did  so  with  hesitation. 
Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  his  tour  through  Derbyshire, 
met  with  a  friend  who,  the  day  before  he  saw  him, 

*  "State  Papers."  This  letter  is  dated  March  2,  1663.  It 
is  anonymous  ;  the  reason  for  ascribing  it  to  Hook  will  appear 
further  on. 

I  "Joseph  Alleine's  Life,"  by  Stanford,  204.  There  is  a  glowing 
account  in  the  "  Mercurius  Publicus,"  of  an  Episcopal  service  at 
St.  Mary's,  on  the  25th,  when  the  church  was  so  full  that  people 
fainted  with  heat,  and  "  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  were  all  in  their 
formalities,  and  not  a  man  in  all  the  church  had  his  hat  on,  either 
at  service  or  sermon." 

X  Ashmole's  "Order  of  the  Garter,"  176. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  283 

which  was  in  the  month  of  September,  "  had  most 
manfully  led  up  a  train  of  above  twenty  parsons,  and 
though  they  thought  themselves  to  be  great  Presby- 
terians, yet  they  followed  "  this  leader  to  Chesterfield, 
and  by  subscribing  there  "kept  themselves  in  their 
livings  despite  of  their  own  teeth."*  Some  lingered 
awhile  on  neutral  ground  ;  others  went  back  to  the 
Establishment.  A  large  number  of  cases  of  this  kind 
may  be  found  in  Calamy's  "  Account "  and  Palmer's 
"  Nonconformist  Memorial."  f  Men  of  character  and 
worth,  belonging  to  the  Puritan  party,  overcame  their 
scruples  by  putting  a  general  interpretation  on  a  precise 
declaration,  and  by  thinking  that  superior  social  in- 
fluence for  good  would  attend  their  remaining  as  shep- 
herds within  the  Episcopalian  sheep-fold.  Lightfoot, 
Wallis,  and  Horton,  who  had  been  Presbyterian  Com- 
missioners at  the  Savoy,  became  Conformists.  Dr. 
Fogg,  of  Chester,  joined  them  at  the  end  of  five  years  ; 
Dr.  Conant  at  the  end  of  seven.  Gurnal,  the  devout 
anthor  of  the  "  Christian  Armour,"  belongs  to  the  same 
class.  All  such  men  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of  sepa- 
rating from  old  friends.^  They  suffered  abuse  ;  being 
taunted  with  the  use  of  "  Episcopal  eye-salve,"  and  for 
bowing  down  to  "the  whore  of  Babylon."  All  sorts 
of  stories  were  buzzed  abroad  to  their  discredit ;  it  is 
related  as  a  Divine  judgment  that  a  Conformist  cross- 

*  "Tour  in  Derbyshire,"  1662.  Browne's  "Works,"  I.  30. 
"At  Buxton,"  he  says,  "we  had  the  hick  to  meet  with  a  sermon, 
which  we  could  not  have  done  in  half-a-year  before,  by  relation. 
I  think  there  is  a  true  Chapel  of  Ease  indeed  here,  for  they  hardly 
ever  go  to  Church,"  p.  34.  Calamy  gives  the  name  of  Mr.  John 
Jackson  as  ejected  from  Buxton,  but  supplies  no  account  of  him. 
("Account,"  204.) 

t  They  occur  at  the  end  of  the  list  for  each  county. 

i  See  Ryle's  account  of  Gurnal,  prefixed  to  the  new  edition  of 
his  works. 


284  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

ing  a  bridge  on  his  way  to  the  place  where  he  meant 
to  subscribe,  was  thrown  from  his  horse  and  killed. 
The  tale  appears  in  connection  with  an  account  of  a 
clergyman,  who,  after  expressing  himself  in  a  sermon 
bitterly  against  the  Presbyterians,  dreamed  that  he 
should  die  at  a  certain  time,  and,  in  accordance  with 
this  warning,  was  found  dead  in  his  bed.*  Cases  also 
occurred  in  which  clergymen  at  first  conformed  to  the 
Act,  and  afterwards  became  Dissenters.f 

Soon  after  the  Act  had  been  passed,  the  Bishops 
issued  articles  of  inquiry  and  visitation,  very  much  of 
the  same  description  as  those  which  had  been  issued 
before  the  Civil  Wars.  In  these  articles,  distinct  refer- 
ence is  made  to  conformity  required  by  the  law.  The 
text  of  the  articles  for  the  dioceses  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
Chichester,  Exeter,  Hereford,  Lincoln,  Llandafif,  Oxford, 
Peterborough,  and  St.  David's  is,  with  slight  exception, 
the  same  as  that  for  the  diocese  of  Winchester,  of  which 
Morley  was  Bishop  ;  and,  under  the  third  title,  "  Con- 
cerning Ministers,"  it  is  asked,  whether  they  had  been 
legally  instituted  and  inducted  ;  and  had,  within  two 
months  after  induction,  on  some  Sunday  or  holyday, 
publicly,  in  the  time  of  Divine  service,  read  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  and  declared  assent  to  them  ;  also,  whether 
in  the  daily  Morning  and  Evening  service,  Administra- 
tion.of  the  Holy  Sacraments,  Celebration  of  Marriage, 
Churching  of  Women,  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  Burial  of 
the  Dead,  and  pronouncing  God's  Commination  against 
impenitent  sinners,  they  used  the  words  prescribed  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  without  any  addition, 
omission,  or  alteration    of  the    same.'     Also  whether 

*  "State   Papers,    Dom.,"    1663,    March    and.      Letter  from 
William  Hook. 
t  For  instances,  see  Palmer,  I.  223,  II.  71. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  2S5 

they  wore  the  surplice,  and  such  scholastical  habit  as 
was  suitable  to  their  degree,  and  observed  holydays, 
fasts,  embers,  and  the  yearly  perambulations  in  Rogation 
weeks  ?  Also  whether  any  person  had  preached  in  the 
parish  as  a  lecturer,  and  if  so,  whether  he  had  obtained 
a  licence  from  the  Bishop,  and  had  read  the  appointed 
prayers,  and  was  in  all  respects  conformable  to  the  laws 
of  the  Church  ?  * 

In  some  articles,  the  questions  on  these  points  are 
still  more  precise  and  stringent.  Cosin,  Bishop  of 
Durham,  asks  "Do  you  not  know,  or  have  you  not 
heard,  that  in  his  reading,  or  pretending  to  read,  these 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  he  (the  minister)  omitted  or 
skipped  over  some  one  or  more  of  them }  What 
article  was  it,  or  what  part  thereof  that  he  left  un- 
read } "  The  same  prelate  also  inquires  whether  lec- 
turers read  prayers  in  a  surplice.f  Other  Bishops 
satisfied  themselves  with  general  questions.  Griffith, 
Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  and  Henchman,  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, both  use  these  words,  ''  Doth  your  minister  dis- 
tinctly, reverently,  say  Divine  service  upon  Sundays 
and  holydays  ; "  "  doth  he  duly  observe  the  orders, 
rites,  and  ceremonies  prescribed  in  the  said  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  ?  "  t  Bishop  Reynolds  asks  whether 
the  minister  had  been  freely  presented,  and  legally 
instituted  and  inducted  ?  whether  he  had  publicly  read 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  given  his  assent,  and 
celebrated  every  office  in  such  form,  manner,  and  habit, 
as  is  prescribed  ?  He  inquires  as  to  the  right  and  due 
observance  of  the  sacraments,  and  the  notice  of  holy- 

*  Appendix  to  Second  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Ritual,  p.  616.  The  articles  of  the  Bishops  there  printed  are  from 
the  collection  in  the  Bodleian  Library. 

t  Ibid.,  601,  602.  t  Ibid.,  607,  611. 


286  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  YIIL 

days  :  and,  like  others  of  his  brethren,  inquires  respect- 
ing the  observance  of  the  5th  of  November,  the  30th  of 
January,  and  the  29th  of  May.* 

Archdeacons  also  issued  articles  touching  the  manner 
of  celebrating  Divine  service.f  Notwithstanding  all 
these  precautions,  a  few  ministers  continued  within  the 
pale  of  the  Establishment  without  conforming  to  the 
Act.  John  Chandler  held  the  living  of  Petto  in  Essex  ; 
although  he  had  only  received  Presbyterian  ordination, 
he  was  pronounced  by  his  diocesan,  Bishop  Reynolds^ 
thus  far  true  to  his  old  faith,  to  be  as  good  a  minister 
as  he  could  make  him  ;  and  notwithstanding  his  only 
partial  use  of  liturgical  worship,  he  was  allowed  to 
retain  his  incumbency.  Mr.  Ashurst,  of  Arlsey,  a  poor 
Bedfordshire  vicarage,  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  in 
which  Laney  succeeded  Sanderson  in  1663,  continued 
to  officiate  in  the  parish  church,  reading  parts  of  the 
Common  Prayer,  and  taking  for  his  support  whatever 
his  parishioners  chose  to  contribute.  Nicholas  Bil- 
lingsley,  settled  at  Blakeney,  in  the  parish  of  Awre, 
in  the  diocese  of  Gloucester,  "  lived  very  peaceably  for 
awhile,"  on  his  impropriation  of  ;^5o  per  annum,  by 
the  permission  of  Bishop  Nicholson.  We  also  find  in 
the  diocese  of  Chester,  under  the  successive  episcopacy 
of  Hall,  Wilkins,  and  Pearson,  that  Angier  of  Denton 
continued  the  occupancy  of  the  pulpit,  and  the  enjoy- 
ment of  his  emoluments,  notwithstanding  his  persever- 
ance in  Presbyterian  worship.  Tilsley,  the  Presbyterian 
Vicar  of  Dean,  after  losing  his  vicarage,  was,  by  Wilkins, 
permitted  to  resume  his  ministry  as  lecturer  in  his  old 
parish,  the    new  Vicar  reading   prayers.     There  were 

*  Appendix  to  Second  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Ritual,  p.  619. 

t  They  are  published  in  the  same  Appendix,  624,  et  seq. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  2S7 

other  instances  in  the  same  diocese  of  an  evasion  of 
the  law.  In  the  diocese  of  Gloucester,  under  Nicholson, 
Henry  Stubbs  was  allowed  to  retain  a  poor  living  ; 
and  in  the  diocese  of  Llandaff,  under  Lloyd,  Richard 
Hawes  was  permitted  to  preach  without  subscribing. 
Similar  instances  of  irregularity  occurred  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  Some  clergymen,  after  being 
ejected,  were  allowed  to  become  chaplains  in  hospitals 
and  prisons,  and  to  officiate  occasionally  for  parochial 
Incumbents.* 

It  may  be  added,  that  there  were  clergymen  in  the 
Establishment  who  disapproved  of  what  had  been  done. 
Edward  Stillingfleet,  however  he  might  speak  and  act 
afterwards,  expressed,  at  that  time,  liberal  opinions, 
and  acted  in  a  manner  consistent  with  them.  He 
maintained  that  Christ's  design  was  to  ease  men  of 
their  former  burdens,  and  not  to  lay  on  more  ;  that  the 
unity  of  the  Church  is  an  unity  of  love  and  affection,, 
and  not  a  bare  uniformity  of  practice  or  opinion  ;  and 
that  however  desirable  in  a  Church  the  latter  might  be, 
it  is  hardly  attainable,  as  long  as  there  are  in  it  men  of 
different  ranks  and  sizes.f  In  accordance  with  these 
sentiments,  Stillingfleet  sheltered  at  his  rectory  of 
Sutton,  in  Bedfordshire,  one  of  the  ejected  ministers, 
and  took  a  large  house,  which  he  converted  into  a 
school  for  another. 

Laymen  deplored  the  severities  of  the  measure. 
Hale,  Boyle,  and  Sir  Peter  Pett  did  so  ;  whilst  Locke's 
earliest  work,  written  in  1660,  aimed  at  reconciling  the 

*  The  authorities  for  these  statements  are  Calamy's  "Account " 
and  "  Continuation,"  Rennet's  "  Register,"  Hunter's  "  Life  of 
Heywood,"  and  Aspland's  "  History  of  Nonconformity  in  Duckin- 
field."  I  could  add  more  instances.  No  doubt  there  were  several 
which  cannot  now  be  ascertained. 

t  "  Irenicum,"  republished  in  1662. 


288  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

Puritans  to  submission  in  things  indifferent.*  A  strong 
conviction  existed  in  the  minds  of  Episcopalians  and 
Royahsts  that  Nonconformity  was  disloyal  and  insur- 
rectionary ;  and  this  conviction,  then,  and  long  after- 
wards, operated  as  a  power  in  the  Church  of  England, 
destructive  of  social  peace  and  union,  far  beyond  what 
is  generally  supposed.  The  rumours  about  plots  in  the 
earlier  period  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  have  not  much 
occupied  the  attention  of  historians.  They  are  com- 
monly dismissed  as  idle  tales.  No  doubt  they  were 
such  in  most  instances,  and  not  in  a  single  instance 
did  any  actual  insurrection  occur.  But  in  history,  it  is 
important  to  notice,  not  only  what  men  have  done,  but 
what  men  have  believed  to  be  done.  Beliefs,  however 
absurd,  have  been  to  those  who  entertained  them,  just 
the  same  as  facts,  and  these  beliefs  have  actually  been 
factors  of  great  power  :  as  such  they  claim  to  be  noted 
by  the  historian,  I  have  too  much  faith  in  the  English 
spirit  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  the  generosity 
which  mingled  with  the  High  Churchmanship  of  the 
best  Cavaliers,  and  in  the  thorough  conscientiousness 
of  many  of  the  Conformists,  to  believe  that  they  could 
have  acted  towards  Dissenters  as  they  did,  unless  they 
had  been  hood-winked  by  people  who  persuaded  them, 
that  Dissenters  were  not  true-hearted  Engishmen,  but 
only  so  many  wretched  rebels.  It  so  happens  that  the 
"  State  Papers,"  as  already  indicated,  afford  almost 
innumerable  illustrations  of  the  extent  and  operation 
of  these  prejudices,  and  I  make  no  apology  for  em- 
ploying these  documents  in  subsequent  pages  as  useful 
contributions  to  English  history. 

In  October,  1662,  Sir  Edward  Nicholas  was  succeeded 
by  Sir  Henry  Bennet.     Like  his  predecessor,  he  gave 

*  Lord  King's  "  Life  of  Locke,"  7,  8,  9. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  HESTORATIO.Y.  289 

himself  diligently  to  inquiries  respecting  suspected 
persons.  A  month  before  the  former  retired,  he  told 
Lord  Rutherford  that  there  were  rumours  of  disturb- 
ances intended  by  Presbyterians  and  Independents, 
but  at  present  all  was  quiet.  A  month  afterwards,  he 
confessed  to  the  same  person  that  there  was  no  com- 
motion in  any  part  of  the  kingdom,  although  factious 
sectaries  raised  reports  to  frighten  people.*  Frivolous 
letters  constantly  poured  in  upon  the  bewildered  officials. 
There  came  notes  of  conversation  with  Edward  Bag- 
shawe,t  who  said  London  was  discontented,  that  i  ,960  X 
ministers  were  turned  out  of  their  livings,  that  Dunkirk 
was  sold,  that  the  King  only  minded  his  mistresses, 
that  the  Queen  and  her  cabal  carried  on  the  Govern- 
ment at  Somerset  House,  that  Popery  was  coming  in, 
that  the  people  would  not  endure  these  things,  but 
would  rise  on  the  ground  that  the  Long  Parliament 
was  not  yet  dissolved  because  they  had  passed  an  Act 
against  any  dissolution  but  by  themselves,  A  large 
bundle  of  examinations  was  forwarded  to  Bennet,  about 
the  same  time,  by  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  an  in- 
former conveying  them,  and  adding  to  the  written 
SQcr&is,  viva  voce  revelations,  the  papers  disclosing  such 
frivolous  circumstances  as  that  three  gentlemen  and 
two  servants,  whom  nobody  knew,  had  been  seen  some- 
where, and  that  "an  ancient  grey  man,"  and  "a  Jersey 
Frenchman  "  were  mysteriously  moving  from  place  to 
place.  Also,  there  arrived  a  packet  promising  much 
information,  which,  when  opened,  was  found  to  contain 
only  religious  sentences,  and  a  number  of  love  verses. 

*  "  State  Papers,  Cal.  Dom.,"  Sept.  14,  and  Sept.  29,  1662. 
t  Ibid.,  Oct.  31,  1662. 

X  This  reported  number  should  be  borne  in  mind  in  connection 
with  others  already  stated. 

VOL.    III.  U 


290  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

Suspicious  persons  were  reported,  and  it  is  amusing, 
amongst  unknown  names  to  find  mentioned  "  Dr. 
Goodwin  and  Owen,  who  now  scruple  at  the  surplice, 
but  used  to  wear  velvet  cassocks,  and  to  receive  from 
five  to  seven  hundred  a-year  from  their  Churches."  * 
The  letter-bags  were  robbed,  people's  houses  were 
broken  into,  and  trunks  full  of  papers  seized  and 
carried  off  by  constables.  Spies  employed  by  the 
Government  were  active  in  collecting  reports,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were  quite  as  active  in  in- 
venting them.  Two  informers,  Peter  and  John  Crabb, 
brought  accounts  of  intended  insurrections,  but  at  the 
same  time  they  made  awkward  revelations  respecting 
themselves.  Peter  had  told  the  Secretary  of  State, 
that  he  and  his  brother  John  were  the  Secretary's 
devoted  servants,  and  wished  to  be  employed  in  a 
certain  business,  that  he  had  only  received  a  part  of 
the  money,  which  he  understood  the  Secretary  had 
sent  him,  and  that  to  cover  his  profession  as  a  spy, 
lest  City  people  should  wonder  how  he  lived,  he  put 
out  a  "  bill,  advertizing  the  cure  of  the  rickets  in  children, 
in  Red  Lion  Court,  Bishopsgate."  f  After  reading  the 
correspondence  of  these  two  brothers,  I  am  not  sur- 
prised to  find  depositions  charging  one  of  them  with 
i)eing  a  liar  and  a  villain.  The  depositions  are  met  by 
cross-swearing,  the  whole  business  leaving  the  impres- 
sion that  Whitehall  was  beset  by  troops  of  scoundrels.| 
A  result  of  this  kind  of  espionage,  and  of  the  exag- 
gerations and  inventions  of  informers,  may  be  found 
in  the  trial  and  condemnation  of  six  men  in  the  month 
of  December  for  being  concerned  in  an  intended  rising 

*  "State  Papers,  Cal.,  Dom.,"  1661-62,  531,  567,  594. 
t  "  Cal.  Dom.,"  1662,  Jan.  31st. 
%  Ibid.,  1662,  Oct.  loth,  Nov.  24th. 


1662.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  291 

of  "  Fifth  Monarchy  men,  Anabaptists,  Independents, 
and  fighting  Quakers."  The  evidence  rested  chiefly 
upon  rumours. 

After  all  Clarendon's  advice  and  all  Sheldon's  oppo- 
sition, the  King,  within  four  months  of  the  meeting  of 
Council  already  described,  returned  to  his  favourite 
expedient.  He  published,  on  the  26th  of  December, 
1662,  a  Declaration,  in  which  he  referred  to  promises 
from  Breda,  of  ease  and  liberty  to  tender  consciences, 
and  also  to  malicious  rumours  to  the  effect,  that  at 
the  time  he  denied  a  fitting  liberty  to  other  sects 
whose  consciences  would  not  allow  them  to  conform 
to  the  established  religion,  he  indulged  Papists,  not 
only  in  exempting  them  from  the  penalties  of  the 
law,  but  to  such  a  degree  as  might  endanger  the 
Protestant  religion.*  Respecting  all  this  he  asserted, 
that  as  he  had  been  zealous  to  settle  the  uniformity  of 
the  Church,  in  discipline,  ceremony,  and  government, 
and  would  ever  constantly  maintain  it,  so  as  for 
penalties  upon  those  who,  living  peaceably,  did  not 
conform,  he  should  make  it  his  special  care,  so  far  as 
possible, — without  invading  the  freedom  of  Parliament, 
— to  incline  the  Legislature,  the  next  sessions,  to  concur 
in  some  such  Act  for  that  purpose,  such  as  might 
enable  him  to  exercise,  with  a  more  universal  satisfac- 
tion, that  power  of  dispensing,  which  he  conceived  to 
be  inherent  in  him  as  a  Sovereign.! 

When  this  Declaration  was  published,  the  hopes  of 
ejected  ministers  began  to  revive.  Independents  took 
courage  ;  Philip  Nye,  in  spite  of  age  and  poverty,  mani- 
fested some  eagerness  to  revive  public  Nonconformist 

*  Illustrations  of  the  extent  of  persecution  in  the  autumn  of 
1662  may  be  found  in  the  "  State  Papers." 
t  Kennet,  849. 


292 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chaf.  YIII. 


worship.     Although  personally  under  the  ban  of  the 
law,  he,  with  some  other  brethren,  found    admission 
to  Whitehall,  and  was  graciously  allowed  an  interview 
with  Charles.     We  do  not  exactly  know  what  passed  ; 
but  Nye  received  so  much  encouragement  from  His 
Majesty's  conversation,  that  he  told  Baxter,  the  King 
had  resolved  to  grant   them  liberty.      The  day  after 
New   Year's    Day,   the    Independent    diplomatist   ap- 
peared  at  the   house  of  the    Presbyterian   Divine  to 
discuss   the   propriety  of  acknowledging    the    King's 
Declaration  and  seeking  indulgence.     Baxter  resolved 
not  to  commit  himself,  nor  would  other  Presbyterians 
take  a  share  in  the  business  ;  they  had  had  enough  of 
it,  they  said,  the  reasons,  at  the  bottom  of  their  policy, 
being  that  they  dreaded  a  toleration  which  they  knew 
would  be  extended  so  as  to  embrace  Roman  Catholics. 
They  looked  on  the  Declaration  as  a  Trojan  horse,  but 
Nye — whose  ideas   of  religious  freedom  perhaps  had 
grown,  so  that  he  might  be  willing  to  concede  it  to 
Roman    Catholics,   and   who   certainly   had    a   strong 
desire  after  unfettered  action  for  himself  and  his  party 
— thought  the  tactics  of  the  Presbyterians  unwise,  and 
he  considered  that,  through  them,  he  and  his  brethren 
"  missed  of  their  intended  liberty."  *     Further  discus- 
sion followed  between  Baxter  and  the  Independents. 
They  said  that  they  had  heard  from  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, that  liberty  had  been  intended  for  them,  but 
that  the  Presbyterians  had  opposed  the  measure.     Old 
sores    were    re-opened,    and    Baxter,    evidently    rather 
nettled,  records  how  the  Independents  became  affected 
towards  the  Popish  Earl  of  Bristol,  thinking  that  the 
King's   Declaration  had    been  obtained    by  him,   and 
that  he  and  the  Papists  would  contrive  a  general  tolera- 
*  Baxter's  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  430. 


1663.]  777^   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  293 

tion.  Burnet  confirms  what  Baxter  says  of  the  Earl's 
influence,  by  informing  us,  that  just  before,  there  had 
been  a  meeting  of  Papists  at  that  nobleman's  residence, 
where  it  had  been  resolved  to  make  an  effort  in  favour 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  with  such  a  view  to  help 
Dissenters.* 

Clarendon,  who  had  strong  Protestant  convictions, 
felt  alarmed  at  the  brightening  prospects  of  the 
Romanists,  and  he  resolved  to  take  a  leaf  out  of  their 
own  book,  to  fight  them  with  their  own  weapons,  and  to 
adopt  their  own  principle,  "  Divide  and  conquer  !  "  The 
Chancellor  accordingly  proposed  that  Roman  Catholics 
should  take  the  Oath  of  Allegiance,  renouncing  the 
Pope's  deposing  power,  an  oath  to  which  some  did  not 
object,  but  which  others  would,  on  no  account,  accept. 
He  also  proposed  the  tolerating  of  secular  priests, 
coupling  with  it  the  banishment  of  Jesuits  and  other 
regular  orders,  another  scheme  which  he  knew  well 
would  breed  division.  The  whole  of  his  Lordship's 
policy  is  not  explained,  but  it  is  apparent  that  he  had 
set  his  mind  upon  extinguishing  the  hopes  of  the 
Papists.f 

Parliament  assembled  on  the  i8th  of  February,  1663. 
The  King's  speech  indicated  the  unpopularity  of  the 
recent  Declaration,  and  he  found  it  necessary  to  assure 
the  Houses  that  he  did  not  intend  to  favour  Popery  at 
all,  and  that  he  would  not  yield  to  the  Bishops  in  his 
zeal  for  uniformity ;  still  he  said,  with  obvious  incon- 
sistency, if  Protestant  Dissenters  would  be  peaceable 
and  modest,  he  could  heartily  wish  that  he  had  such 
a  power  of  indulgence  as  might  not  needlessly  force 

*  "  History  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  193. 

t  See  on  this  subject,  Burnet's  ''  History  of  his  Own  Time,"  I. 
194  ;  Lingard,  XI.  220  ;  and  Butler's  "  Memoirs,"  HI.  44. 


294  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  YIII, 

them  out  of  the  kingdom,  or  give  them  cause  to  con- 
spire against  its  peace.  Five  days  afterwards,  a  Bill 
was  brought  into  the  House  of  Lords  and  read  the  first 
time,  to  empower  His  Majesty  to  dispense  with  the  Act 
of  Uniformity,  and  with  other  laws  concerning  it.* 
This  Bill  came  to  nothing,  being  earnestly  opposed  by 
Lord  Southampton,  by  the  Bishops,  and  by  Clarendon, 
who,  in  spite  of  a  fit  of  the  gout,  delivered  a  speech  on. 
the  adjourned  debate,  full  of  uncompromising  opposi- 
tion to  the  King's  favourite  measure.  It  is  a  singular 
example  of  the  difference  between  a  Chief  Minister  of 
that  day  and  a  Prime  Minister  of  our  own,  that  Claren- 
don should  in  the  House  of  Lords  oppose  the  measure 
which  had  been  brought  in,  according  to  wishes  ex- 
pressed in  the  speech  from  the  Throne,  nor  can  his 
conduct  respecting  the  Declaration  fail  to  support 
against  him  the  charge  of  duplicity .f  Amongst  the 
mischiefs  which,  he  says,  resulted  from  what  he 
calls  the  unhappy  debate  on  the  Indulgence,  was  the 
prejudice  and  disadvantage  which  the  Bishops  ex- 
perienced in  consequence  of  their  unanimous  opposi- 
tion. "  For  from  that  time  the  King  never  treated  any 
of  them  with  that  respect  as  he  had  done  formerly,  and 
often  spake  of  them  too  slightly  ;  which  easily  encour- 
aged others  not  only  to  mention  their  persons  very 
negligently,  but  their  function  and  religion  itself,  as 
an  invention  to  impose  upon  the  free  judgments  and 
understandings  of  men.  What  was  preached  in  the 
pulpit  was  commented  upon  and  derided  in  the 
chamber,  and  preachers  acted,  and  sermons  vilified  as 

*  See  the  "  Lords'  Journals,"  Feb.  23rd,  25th,  27th,  28th. 

t  See  Lister's  "Life  of  Clarendon,"  II L  232,  compared  with 
Clarendon's  "Continuation,"  11 29.  The  story  is  there  wrongly 
dated.     So  it  is  in  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  311. 


1663.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  295 

laboured  discourses,  which  the  preachers  made  only  to 
show  their  own  parts  and  wit,  without  any  other  design 
than  to  be  commended  and  preferred."  * 

The  subject  of  Indulgence  agitated  the  whole 
country.  It  was  keenly  discussed  in  private  meetings 
of  Nonconformist  ministers,  at  archidiaconal  visitations 
and  other  clerical  gatherings  ;  still  oftener,  and  with  not 
less  heat,  by  burghers  and  yeomen  around  their  fire- 
sides. Largely,  too,  did  it  enter  into  the  contents  of 
letters,  in  one  of  which,  written  by  William  Hook  to 
his  late  colleague  in  New  England,  we  discover  copious 
references  to  this  and  other  ecclesiastical  topics.  Mak- 
ing allowance  for  the  writer's  prejudices,  we  may  learn 
something  from  his  curious  epistle.t  "  There  is  a 
toleration  talked  of,  and  expected  by  many,  since  the 
King's  declaration  which  came  forth  about  a  month  or 
six  weeks  since.  The  Papists  improve  the  best  of  their 
interest  to  move  it;  but  as  for  their  being  tolerated, 
there  are  many  of  the  grandees  against  it,  who  are 
ready  enough  to  move  a  motion  for  toleration  of  the 
Protestant  suffering  party.  The  Bishops  greatly  abhor 
such  a  thing,  as  not  being  able  to  subsist  but  by  rigour 
and  persecution  :  for  had  we  liberty  as  to  the  exercise 
of  religion,  they  would  be  contemned  by  almost  all 


*  "  Continuation,"  1 131. 

t  Under  date  April  21,  1663,  there  is  a  petition  from  Samuel 
Wilson,  who  was  seized  in  the  Downs  for  ignorantly  receiving  a 
seditious  letter  from  Hook,  a  minister,  which  came  wrapped  up  in 
a  bundle  of  books.  This  person,  Mrs.  Green,  in  the  "  Calendar 
of  State  Papers,"  1663,  suggests,  is  the  writer  of  the  remarkable 
letter  here  referred  to.  No  doubt  of  it.  The  letter  is  dated 
March  2,  1663,  addressed  to  Mr.  Davenport,  who  was  colleague 
with  Hook  at  New  Haven,  in  New  England.  On  Hook's  return 
from  America  to  England  he  became  a  minister  at  Exmouth,  and 
afterwards  Master  of  the  Savoy  and  Chaplain  to  Cromwell. 
(Palmer's  "  Nonconformist  Memorial") 


296  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

men  ;  and  whereas  few  frequent  the  meeting-places 
now,  they  would  scarce  have  any  then.  They  have 
therefore  striven  to  strengthen  themselves  by  moving 
and  writing  to  Parliament  men,  before  they  come  up 
to  the  City,  to  sit  again  on  February  i8th.  And,  as  I 
hear,  some  of  their  letters  were  intercepted  and  made 
known  to  the  King,  who  was  offended  at  some 
passages,  and  their  practices.  Much  to  do  there  has 
been  about  this  business,  and  what  will  become  of  it, 
and  the  issue  be,  we  are  all  waiting  for." 

In  another  part  of  the  same  odd  epistle,  relating  to  the 
same  subject,  Hook  gives  a  glimpse  of  an  amusing 
incident :  "  His  Majesty  sent  for  Mr.  Calamy,  Dr.  Bates, 
and  Dr.  Manton  (and  some  say,  Mr.  Baxter  also),  on 
the  last  of  the  last  w^eek,  and  took  them  into  his  closet, 
and  promised  to  restore  them  to  their  employments 
and  places  again,  as  pitying  that  such  men  should  lie 
vacant,  speaking  also  against  the  Popish  religion,  as  it 
is  said.  Before  they  went  in  with  the  King,  some  said, 
'  What  do  these  Presbyterians  here  .'' '  but  when  they 
came  out,  they  said,  '  Your  servant,  Mr.  Calamy,  and 
your  servant.  Dr.  Manton,'  etc.  It  was  told  them  that 
a  Bill  for  Liberty  should  be  given  in  to  the  House  ; 
but,  however  it  went,  they  should  have  their  liberty, 
i.e.,  upon  subscribing  (I  take  it)  thirteen  articles  touch- 
ing doctrine  and  worship,  in  which  there  is  nothing  (as 
they  say)  offensive  to  a  tender  conscience.  There  is  a 
distinction  between  an  act  of  comprehension  and  an  act 
of  judgment.  Some  are  for  the  first,  others  not.  The 
first  is  comprehensive  as  to  all  forms  in  religion  (ex- 
cepting Papist,  etc.,  but  I  cannot  well  tell).  The  other 
leaves  it  to  His  Majesty  to  indulge  whom  he  seeth 
good.  On  the  last  day  of  the  last  week,  a  motion  was 
made  in  the  Lower  House  for  Liberty,  according  to  the 


1663.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  297 

King's  Declaration,  which  I  have  sent  you.  A  dis- 
affected spirit  to  Liberty  was  much  discovered  by  very 
many,  and  the  business  was  referred  to  be  debated 
upon  the  Wednesday  following,  which  is  this  present 
day :  what  will  come  of  it  I  cannot  yet  tell."  * 

The  subject  of  Indulgence  was  revived  in  the  summer, 
and  again  Presbyterians  and  Independents,  as  be- 
fore, are  found  in  controversy  on  the  point.f  Amidst 
rumours  of  various  sorts,  and  as  the  Upper  House  still 
occupied  itself  upon  the  offensive  Bill,  the  Lower  House 
showed,  as  they  had  done  from  the  beginning,  the 
most  intolerant  zeal  for  the  established  Church.  When 
thanking  the  King,  on  the  27th  of  February,  for  his 
speech,  they  told  him  that  an  indulgence  of  Dissenters 
would  establish  schism  by  law,  would  be  inconsistent 
with  the  wisdom  and  gravity  of  Parliament,  would 
expose  His  Majesty  to  restless  importunities,  would 
increase  the  number  of  sectaries,  Avould  be  altogether 
contrary  to  precedent,  and  would  be  far  from  promoting 
the  peace  of  the  kingdom.  This  array  of  objections 
alarmed  the  Monarch  ;  he  immediately  replied  that  he 
would  take  time  for  consideration,  and  on  the  i6th  of 
March,  he  sent  an  answer,  assuring  his  faithful  Com- 
mons that  they  had  misunderstood  his  meaning,  thank- 
ing them  for  their  thanks,  and  desiring  them  to  put  the 
kingdom  in  a  state  of  defence,  but  not  saying  one  word 
about  the  apple  of  discord. | 

Both  Houses,  on  the  31st  of  March,  1633,  presented 
a  Petition  to  the  King,  imploring  him  to  command  all 
Jesuits  and  Popish  Priests,  whether  English,  Irish,  or 

*  This  writer  attributes  depression  in  trade  to  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity, and  blames  the  Presbyterians  for  being  ready  to  meet  the 
Prelates  half  way,  and  swallow  the  Liturgy. 

t  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  IL  433. 

X  See  "  Commons' Journals,"  1663,  Feb.  27th,  March  i6th. 


298  RELIGION  IiV  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

Scotch,  to  quit  the  reahn.  To  him  such  a  Petition 
must  have  been  annoying,  and  after  delaying  a  while, 
to  give  any  distinct  answer,  he  replied,  that  he  felt 
troubled  on  account  of  the  resort  to  England  of  Jesuits 
and  Priests,  that  it  was  so  much  ill-use  made  of  his 
lenity  towards  many  of  the  Popish  persuasion,  that  his 
feelings  in  this  respect  were  the  natural  effects  of  his 
generosity  and  good  disposition,  after  having  lived  sa 
many  years  in  the  dominions  of  Catholic  Princes,  that 
he  would  now  endeavour  to  check  the  evil,  that  as  his 
affection  for  the  Protestant  religion  and  the  Church  of 
England  had  never  been  concealed,  so  he  was  less 
solicitous  for  the  settling  of  his  revenue  than  for  the 
advancement  and  improvement  of  the  ecclesiastical 
establishments,  and  for  the  using  of  all  effectual 
remedies  for  hindering  the  growth  of  Popery.*  The 
Commons  passed  Bills  against  Papists  and  Noncon- 
formists, but  these  Bills  were  not  sanctioned  by  the 
Upper  House.f 

From  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity  down  to 
the  repeal  of  the  clause  in  1865,  touching  the  declara- 
tion of  assent  and  consent,  the  meaning  of  those  words 
was  a  constant  subject  of  controversy,  some  even  of 
the  Bishops  construing  them  in  a  very  lax  and  indefinite 
manner.  The  words  seem  to  many  persons  precise 
enough  ;  and  one  might  have  thought  that  no  room 
remained  for  controversy  respecting  them,  after  what 
took  place  in  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  time  now 

*  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV,  263-265. 

t  The  Bill  against  Papists  was  committed  March  17th  ;  that 
against  Dissenters  May  23rd.  Several  debates,  amendments,  and 
divisions  took  place.  At  the  beginning  of  July  the  Bills  were, 
carried  up  to  the  Lords.  The  Bill  against  Sectaries  was  com- 
mitted by  the  Upper  House,  July  22nd,  and  there  the  matter 
ended.     Parliament  was  prorogued  on  the  27th. 


1663.]  THE    CHURCir  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  299 

under  review.  A  Bill  passed  in  the  month  of  July,  to 
relieve  those  who  by  sickness  or  other  impediment  had 
been  disabled  from  subscribing  the  required  declaration. 
The  Lords  wished  to  sanction  the  latitudinarian  inter- 
pretation, and  adopted  as  an  amendment  this  position, 
that  "  assent  and  consent "  should  "  be  understood  only 
as  to  the  practice  and  obedience  to  the  said  Act,  and 
not  otherwise."  Against  this  construction  the  Duke  of 
York  and  thirteen  other  Lords  entered  their  protest. 
The  Commons  indignantly  rejected  the  amendment,  as 
having  "neither  justice  nor  prudence  in  it."  Such 
conduct  aroused  the  anger  of  the  Lords,  who  resolved 
to  take  up  the  subject  in  the  following  session  ;  but 
they  allowed  it  to  drop,  and  so  virtually  gave  way 
to  the  Lower  House,  and  left  the  strict  grammatical 
meaning  as  the  true  construction  of  the  law.* 

Upon  the  27th  of  the  same  month,  July,  the  Speaker, 
in  addressing  the  King,  alluded  to  a  measure  for  the 
better  observance  of  the  Sabbath  ;  the  legislation  of  the 
Commonwealth  on  that  as  on  all  other  subjects  having 
been  rendered  void.  He  dwelt  in  an  affected  strain 
upon  the  decline  of  religion,  and  then  returned  to  the 
subject  of  the  growth  of  Popery,  and  of  Sectarianism. 
He  was  commanded,  he  said,  to  desire  that  His  Majesty 
would  issue  another  proclamation  for  preventing  pro- 
faneness,  debauchery,  and  licentiousness,  and  for  better 
securing  the  peace  of  the  nation  against  the  united 
counsels  of  Dissenters.  Charles  replied,  that  he  had 
expected  to  have  had  Bills  presented  to  him  against 
distempers  in  religion,  seditious  Conventicles,  and 
the  increase  of  Popery ;  but,  that  not  being  done, 
if  he  lived,  he  himself  meant  to  introduce  such  Bills. 
Meanwhile,  he  had  charged  the  Judges  to  use  all  en- 
*  "  Lords'  Journals,"  July  25th,  27th. 


300  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

deavours  to  disperse  the  Sectaries,  and  to  convict  the 
Papists.* 

Soon  after  the  Restoration  death  removed  several 
prelates.  Brian  Walton  died  in  November,  1 66 1,  in  a 
little  more  than  two  months  after  his  installation  at 
Chester,  when  Dr.  George  Hall  succeeded  him.  Nicholas 
Monk,  whose  funeral  has  been  noticed,  within  one  year 
of  his  promotion  to  Hereford,  died  on  the  17th  of 
December,  1661,  and  was  succeeded  by  Herbert  Croft. 
Duppa,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  left  the  world  March 
25,  1662,  leaving  behind  him  a  reputation  for  muni- 
ficent charity,  and,  just  before  his  departure,  bestowing 
his  Episcopal  benediction  upon  the  King,  who  had 
been  his  pupil,  and  who  knelt  by  the  side  of  his  death- 
bed. Gauden,  who  in  the  beginning  of  1662  had  been 
translated  from  Exeter  to  Worcester,  expired  before 
the  end  of  twelve  months. 

Sanderson,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  passed  away  in  January, 
1663.  When  in  his  illness  petitions  were  offered  for 
his  recovery,  he  remarked  that  "  his  friends  said  their 
prayers  backward  for  him,  and  that  it  was  not  his 
desire  to  live  a  useless  life,  and,  by  filling  up  a  place, 
keep  another  out  of  it,  that  might  do  God  and  His 
Church  service."  With  his  dying  breath  he  exclaimed, 
"  Thou,  O  God,  tookest  me  out  of  my  mother's  womb, 
and  hast  been  the  powerful  protector  of  me  to  this 
present  moment  of  my  life.    Thou  hast  neither  forsaken 

*"  Lords'  Journals,"  July  27,  1663.  A  curious  incident 
occurred  during  their  sittings.  The  Bill  for  the  better  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  was  lost  oif  the  table,  and  could  not  be  found. 
The  like  had  never  occurred  before,  and  "  every  Lord  was  called 
by  name,  and  those  present  did  make  their  purgation,  and  the 
assistants  likewise  did  particularly  clear  themselves."  It  was  the 
last  day  of  the  session.  The  Bills  to  receive  the  Royal  assent  had 
been  taken  out  of  a  bag,  and  opened  on  the  table  ;  but  this  Bill 
disappeared,  and  consequently  did  not  receive  le  Roy  le  vcult. 


1663.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  301 

me  now  I  am  become  grey-headed,  nor  suffered  me  to 
forsake  Thee  in  the  late  days  of  temptation,  and  sacrifice 
my  conscience  for  the  preservation  of  my  hberty  or 
estate.  It  was  by  grace  that  I  have  stood,  when  others 
have  fallen  under  my  trials  ;  and  these  mercies  I  now 
remember  with  joy  and  thankfulness,  and  my  hope  and 
desire  is  that  I  may  die  praising  Thee."  He  had  no 
taste  for  funeral  parade,  and  expressly  directed  in  his 
will,  that  he  should  be  buried  with  as  little  noise,  pomp, 
and  charge  as  might  be,  no  escutcheons,  gloves,  ribbons, 
no  black  hangings  in  the  church,  only  a  pulpit  cloth,  a 
hearse  cloth,  and  a  mourning  gown  for  the  preacher  of 
the  funeral  sermon,  who  was  to  have  five  pounds  for  the 
service,  upon  condition,  that  he  spoke  nothing  of  the 
deceased,  either  good  or  ill,  "other,"  Sanderson  adds, 
"than  I  myself  shall  direct,"  Nor  was  any  costly 
monument  to  be  raised  to  his  memory,  "  only  a  fair 
flat  marble  stone."  * 

Juxon,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died  at  Lambeth 
Palace,  on  the  4th  of  June  ;  and  left  behind  him  an 
honourable  renown  for  meekness,  constancy,  fortitude, 
and  liberality.  The  sums  which  he  contributed  to 
public  objects  of  charitj-  and  religion  amounted  to  no 
less  than  ^^48,000.  Archbishop  Bramhall  departed  this 
life,  in  Dublin,  on  the  25th  of  the  same  month,  after 
three  fits  of  paralysis.  To  use  the  words  of  Jeremy 
Taylor  in  his  funeral  sermon  for  the  Primate,  "  As  the 
Apostles  in  the  vespers  of  Christ's  passion,  so  he,  in 
the  eve  of  his  own  dissolution,  was  heavy,  not  to  sleep, 
but  heavy  unto  death  ;  and  looked  for  the  last  warning, 

*  Walton's  "  Lives,"  424-437.  He  had  left  a  list  of  ministers 
under  his  eye  designed  for  discipline,  but  when  he  saw  death 
approaching,  he  burnt  the  paper,  and  said  he  would  die  in  peace. 
("  Conformists'  Plea  for  Nonconformity,"  35.) 


302  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

which  seized  on  him  in  the  midst  of  business  ;  and 
though  it  was  sudden,  yet  it  could  not  be  unexpected 
or  unprovided  by  surprise,  and  therefore  could  be  no 
other  than  that  evOavama,  which  Augustus  used  to  wish 
unto  himself,  a  civil  and  well-natured  death,  without 
the  amazement  of  troublesome  circumstances,  or  the 
great  cracks  of  a  falling  house,  or  the  convulsions  of 
impatience."  *  Through  vacancies  at  the  time  of  the 
Restoration,  and  deaths  and  translations  afterwards, 
within  two  years  and  a  half,  mitres  fell  to  the  disposal 
of  the  Crown  more  than  twenty  times. 

Sheldon,  as  a  reward  for  the  great  services  which  he 
had  rendered  to  the  High  Church  party  during  the 
Commonwealth,  at  the  Restoration,  and  after  his  pre- 
ferment to  London,  was  translated  to  the  Archiepiscopal 
see  of  Canterbury.  The  ceremony  of  his  installation 
was  performed  with  very  great  pomp.f 

In  spite  of  the  severity  of  the  law,  and  the  activity 
of  informers,  considerable  numbers  in  difterent  parts 
of  the  country  met  for  religious  worship.  It  is  very 
common,  in  the  informations  sent  to  Secretary  Bennet 
respecting  these  assemblies,  to  find  mention  made  of 
them  as  having  a  revolutionary  object.  There  were,  it 
is  reported,  daily  great  Conventicles  near  Canterbury  ; 
and  on  Whit-Tuesday,  June  20th,  three  hundred  persons 
met  in  the  village  of  Waltham,  in  a  farm  cottage,  de- 
scribed as  "one  Hobday's  house."  Others  heard 
preaching  in  a  cherry  orchard,  sitting  under  trees  then 
rich  with  ripening  fruit ;  upon  leaving  the  enclosure, 
it  is  said,  they  had  with  them  "fifty  or  sixty  good 
horses,  several  portmanteaus,"  and  certain  bundles 
"supposed  to  contain  arms."     Liberty  thus  exercised, 

*  "  Works,"  VI.  443. 

t  31st  August,  1663.     Evelyn's  "Diary,"  I.  399. 


1G63.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATJO.V.  303 

frightened  intolerant  people.  Sectaries  in  the  City  of 
Chichester  were  charged  with  treating  contemptuously 
the  surplice  and  Prayer  Book.  Some  were  imprisoned, 
and  others  bound  over  to  the  Sessions.  The  ring- 
leaders promised  to  be  quiet,  yet  afterwards  they  inter- 
rupted the  ministers  in  worship  ;  in  consequence  of 
which,  the  trained  bands  marched  out  to  keep  guard 
for  a  fortnight,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period  another 
company  of  the  same  kind  was  to  take  their  place. 
Like  precautions  were  adopted  at  Yarmouth,  where 
two  hundred  Nonconformists  were  charged  in  the  Com- 
missary Court  with  not  taking  the  sacrament.*  In  the 
City  of  Norwich,  the  Deputy-Lieutenant  hearing  of  a 
meeting  in  a  private  house,  issued  warrants  to  search 
for  arms.  The  officers,  upon  being  denied  entrance, 
broke  open  the  doors,  and  found  two  or  three  hundred 
persons  engaged  in  worship,  one  hundred  of  whom  were 
strong  men.  Their  teacher  was  identified,  and  all  were 
bound  over  to  the  following  Sessions.  Complaints 
were  made  from  Lewes  that  the  Sectaries  in  that  town 
were  as  numerous  as  ever.  One  of  the  "  saints  "  there 
happening  to  die,  the  clergyman  of  the  parish  heard 
that  he  was  to  be  buried  at  night;  so  when  it  grew 
dark,  he  began  carefully  to  watch,  and  as  the  corpse 
arrived  at  the  churchyard,  made  his  appearance  to  read 
the  burial  service.  Upon  seeing  him,  the  party  retired 
and  took  back  the  body,  but  they  returned  in  two 
hours,  and  again  the  Licumbent  was  discerned  in  the 
dark,  standing  by  the  grave,  when  they  treated  him 

*  "State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  June  20th,  Sept.  22nd, 
Oct.  1 2th.  I  may  add  that  a  very  affecting  iUustration  of  the 
sufferings  of  an  ejected  minister  through  trial  and  imprisonment 
for  preaching  in  some  retired  place  after  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
is  to  be  found  in  Stanford's  "  Joseph  Alleine,"  Chapters  X.  and 
XI. 


304  RELIGION-  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  Till. 

SO  insolently,  that  he  had  to  bind  several  of  them  over 
to  good  behaviour.  It  was  also  reported  that  shops  in 
the  town  had  been  kept  open  in  contempt  of  Christmas 
Day,  although  the  clergyman  had  sent  orders  to  close 
the  shutters.  "  Fair  means  did  no  good  to  these 
stubborn  rascals,"  said  the  irritated  informant ;  and  his 
letter  is  but  one  specimen  out  of  a  great  number.*  At 
Axminster,  in  Devonshire,  the  people  met  "  in  a  lone- 
some place  near  a  great  wood,"  when  their  pastor 
preached  to  them  from  the  words  "  Keep  me  as  the 
apple  of  Thine  eye,  hide  me  under  the  shadow  of  Thy 
wings  ;  "  and  after  the  persecuted  ones  had  experienced 
"  downpourings  of  the  Spirit,"  and  the  ministers  had 
gone  apart  "  to  refresh  themselves,"  "  some  soldiers 
who  were  ranging  abroad,  like  ravening  wolves  for  the 
prey,"  rushed  amongst  the  little  flock  and  carried  some 
away.  At  the  next  General  Assizes,  they  were  fined  ; 
and  "  the  Lord  stirred  up  the  hearts  of  their  Christian 
brethren  to  disburse  the  money  for  several  of  them." 
Others  would  not  accept  such  deliverance,  but  "judged 
it  more  for  the  honour  of  the  Lord,  and  of  His  Gospel, 
whose  prisoners  they  were,  to  continue  in  bonds,  till 
He  should  open  the  prison  doors  for  them,  and  bring 
them  forth  with  greater  glory  to  His  name,  and  with 
more  satisfaction  to  their  own  souls  ;  wherefore  their 
imprisonment  was  continued  during  the  space  of  five 
years  and  some  months.  Afterwards  the  Lord  in  the 
way  of  His  providence  opened  the  prison  doors,  and 
brought  them  forth  out  of  their  prison  house  without 
paying  so  much  as  one  farthing."  f 

*  "  State  Papers,"  Nov.  gth,  Dec.  31st. 

t  "  Ecclesiastica  ;  or  a  Book  of  Remembrance  of  the  Church 
of  Christ,  assembling  at  Wykecroft,  in  the  parish  of  Axminster," 
lately  printed  for  private  circulation. 


1663.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  305 

Lucy  Hutchinson  tells  a  touching  story,  relating  to 
the  same  summer  months,  to  which  the  earlier  of  these 
informations  belong.  Mr.  Palmer,  a  Nottingham  Non- 
conformist minister,  was  apprehended,  and  some  others 
with  him,  at  his  own  house,  by  the  Mayor  for  preaching 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  was  put  into  the  town  gaol  for 
two  or  three  months.  Through  a  grated  window  he-* 
and  his  brethren  could  be  seen  by  the  people  in  the 
street.  One  Sunday,  as  the  prisoners  were  singing  a 
psalm,  the  passengers  stood  still  by  the  grated  window 
to  listen,  and  Mr.  Palmer  went  on  to  preach  to  the 
congregation  outside,  when  the  Mayor,  a  renegade  Par- 
liament officer,  came  with  officers,  and  beat  the  people, 
and  thrust  some  into  confinement.* 

Petty  annoyances  of  manifold  kinds  were  endured 
by  Nonconformists  of  all  classes  ;  and  we  find  in  a 
letter,  dated  November  14,  1663,  written  by  an  officer 
who  had  marched  some  troops  down  to  Marlborough 
on  a  rumour  of  disaffection  there,  the  following  state- 
ment :  "  He  came  to  Marlborough  on  Tuesday,  and  the 
day  after,  with  a  small  party,  assaulted  the  burial  ground 
of  the  Quakers  at  Manton,  laid  it  waste,  leaving  all  the 
prey  to  the  owner's  disposal,  but  the  valiant  owner  chal- 
lenged us  to  fight  with  the  lawyers'  weapon,"  i.e.,  he 
would  sue  them  all  for  an  act  of  trespass.! 

The  ecclesiastical  policy  pursued  at  this  time  towards 
the  English  colonists  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic 
was  very  different  from  that  adopted  at  home.  In  the 
instructions  given  to  the  Governors  of  Jamaica,  whilst 
they  were  enjoined  to  encourage  orthodox  ministers  of 
religion,  in  order  that  Christianity  and  Anglican  Pro- 
testantism might  be  reverenced  and  exercised,  it  was 

*  "  Memoirs  of  Colonel  Hutchinson,"  391. 
t  "  Hist.  MSS.  Com— Paper  at  Alnwick  Castle." 
VOL.    III.  X 


3o6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

commanded  that  those  colonists  who  were  of  dififerent 
rehgious  opinions  should  not  be  obstructed  and  hindered 
on  such  account  ;  that  they  should  be  excused  from 
taking  the  Oath  of  Supremacy  according  to  the  terms 
required  in  this  country,  and  that  some  other  mode 
should  be  devised  for  securing  their  allegiance.*  In  a 
Charter  granted  to  the  State  of  Carolina,  dated  March 
24,  1663,  there  is  a  clause  of  indulgence  to  be  granted 
to  persons  who  could  not  conform  to  the  Liturgy,  upon 
condition  that  they  should  declare  their  loyalty,  and 
not  scandalize  and  reproach  the  Church.f  In  the 
Royal  Commission  granted  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia, 
he  is  instructed  not  to  suffer  any  one  to  be  molested  in 
the  exercise  of  his  religion,  provided  he  be  content  with 
a  quiet  and  peaceable  profession  of  it,  not  giving  offence 
or  scandal  to  the  Government.!  In  the  Charter  granted 
to  Rhode  Island,  July  8,  1663,  it  is  distinctly  provided, 
that  no  person  within  the  colony  should  be  disquieted 
for  differences  of  theological  opinion. 

Should  any  one  ask,  why  were  these  people  in  the 
West  so  differently  treated  from  Englishmen  in  his 
Majesty's  home  dominions,  the  answer  is,  that  the 
power  and  the  temper  of  the  colonists  were  such  that 
it  would  have  been  dangerous  to  the  Imperial  rule 
to  have  denied  the  utmost  toleration.  Most  of  the 
emigrants  had  fled  from  England,  because  of  their 
Nonconformity.  It  would  have  been  at  the  risk,  nay, 
with  the  certainty  of  losing  those  fair  possessions,  had 
the  Government  denied  the  fullest  religious  liberty. 
Nor  did  the  political  fears  which  blended  with  the 
religious  animosities  at  home  exist  in  relation  to  those 

*  Anderson's  "  Hist,  of  the  Colonial  Church,"  II.  286. 
t  Ibid.,  316-318. 
X  Ibid.,  II.  342. 


1663.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  307 

distant  settlements.  Neither  could  the  Church  be  en- 
dangered, nor  the  Throne  be  shaken,  nor  the  State  be 
disturbed  by  Nonconformists  thousands  of  miles  away. 
It  is  also  a  fact  that  kindness  and  generosity  will  often 
flow  in  abundant  streams  towards  objects  at  a  distance, 
whilst  the  current  is  diverted  from  objects  at  the  door. 
Moreover,  we  should  remember  that  Charles  II.  was 
not  of  an  intolerant  and  cruel  disposition,  that  where 
he  could,  without  trouble  or  danger,  concede  religious 
liberty,  he  was  ready  to  do  so,  and  that  Clarendon  was 
not  destitute  of  all  good-will  towards  people  of  other 
opinions  than  his  own,  when  neither  policy  nor  prejudice 
crossed  his  better  nature. 

In  the  month  of  October,  after  rumours  of  imagined 
outbreaks,  something  of  the  kind  actually  occurred  in 
Farnley  Wood,  Yorkshire.  What  was  going  forward 
the  Government  knew,  and  enormously  exaggerated 
reports  of  it  were  conveyed  to  Whitehall.  The  wood 
was  narrowly  watched.  Twelve  armed  men  met  there. 
Two  hundred  were  seen  riding  in  an  open  glade,  after 
which  they  moved  away,  four  or  six  together,  in  different 
directions.  Entrenchments  were  thrown  up,  but  there 
was  no  fighting.  Several  of  these  persons  were  arrested, 
amongst  whom  were  Major  Thomas  Greathead  and 
Captain  Thomas  Gates,  trustees  of  the  curious  little 
Presbyterian  chapel  at  Morley.  Gates  was  tried  at 
York,  when  his  infamous  son  Ralph  appeared  to  give 
evidence  against  him,  but  was  refused  a  hearing  by  the 
Judge  ;  the  Captain,  however,  suffered  death.  Great- 
head  turned  King's  evidence,  being  promised  not  only 
his  life  but  a  great  reward,  if  he  would  confess  the 
whole  danger.  The  Royalist  spies  and  informers 
reported,  that  he  was  so  necessary  to  the  military  part 
of  the  business,  that   nothing  could  be   done  without 


3o8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

him,  and  that  he  was,  therefore,  fully  trusted  by  the 
rebels.  This  appears  in  the  documents,  touching  the 
affair,  preserved  in  the  State  Paper  Office.  They  are 
very  numerous,  and  amidst  much  which  is  vague  and 
confused,  there  may  be  discovered  definite  proofs  that 
a  plot  did  exist  in  the  year  1663,  with  which  the 
Farnley  Wood  entrenchments  were  connected.  There 
seem  to  have  been  exiles  in  Rotterdam,  who  had  cor- 
respondence with  parties  in  England  respecting  this 
treasonable  business,  especially  Dr.  Richardson,  who 
surrendered  his  preferment  at  Ripon  upon  the  Restora- 
tion of  the  King,  and  had  gone  over  to  Holland. 
Among  the  implicated  persons  he  mentions  Ralph 
Rymer,  father  of  the  Editor  of  the  Fadera — which 
Ralph,  like  Oates,  and  several  others,  was  hanged  for 
his  share  in  the  complicated  proceedings  of  this  ex- 
tensive plot.  Richardson  declared  that  if  there  had 
been  a  good  leader  the  business  would  have  taken 
stronger  and  sooner.  Their  numbers  were  small,  but 
their  faith  was  strong,  and  they  believed  miracles 
would  have  attended  their  design.  Several  distin- 
guished names  are  mentioned  in  the  documents,  such 
as  Lords  Wharton  and  Fairfax  ;  but  the  Government 
did  not  meddle  with  such  formidable  personages. 

The  sort  of  agency  set  to  work,  first  to  entrap,  and 
then  to  convert  unwary  Nonconformists,  is  revealed  by 
a  writer  who,  in  the  month  of  December,  bewails  the 
severity  of  Government  towards  men  deluded  and 
betrayed  by  informers  ;  he  instances  a  "Mr.  Wakerley, 
a  sober  Yorkshire  Quaker,  visited  by  Thomas  Denham, 
a  privileged  spy,  who  tried  to  persuade  him  to  join  the 
Northern  design  ;  he  steadily  refused,  and  even  wrote 
to  Sir  Thomas  Gower  an  account  of  what  passed,  but 
his  letter  was   suppressed,   and  he  summoned  before 


16C3.J  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  309 

the  Duke  of  Buckingham  as  a  plotter,  and  only  dis- 
charged on  his  letters  being  searched  for  and  found."  * 
Not  more  frequent  at  that  time,  when  old  English 
sports  continued  to  amuse  the  nobility  and  gentry,  was 
the  flight  of  the  hawk,  freed  from  its  jess  and  hood, 
gliding  through  the  air  and  striking  its  quarry,  than 
was  the  prowling  abroad  of  the  informer,  who,  freed 
from  all  restraint  of  justice  and  humanity,  pursued  with 
keenest  eye,  and  seized  with  merciless  vengeance,  the 
ill-fated  Sectar)^  This  favourite  English  bird,  indeed, 
is  dishonoured  by  the  comparison,  for,  with  all  the 
hawk's  rapacity,  the  spy  had  none  of  its  better  qualities. 
Sprung  from  the  dregs  of  the  people,  mean  and  das- 
tardly to  the  last  degree,  and  many  of  them  spending 
their  ill-gotten  gains  in  gambling  and  debauchery, 
creatures  of  this  kind  were  as  much  the  objects  of 
abhorrence  to  the  respectable  portion  of  the  com- 
munity, as  they  were  of  terror  to  the  innocent  class 
upon  which  they  pounced.  Destitute  of  the  fear  of 
God,  caring  not  at  all  for  religion,  yet  professing  them- 
selves zealous  Churchmen,  they  spent  the  Lord's  Day 
in  ferreting  out  their  fellow-citizens  and  disturbing  them 
at  their  devotions.  In  coffee-houses  and  places  of 
public  resort,  during  the  week,  they  were  lying  in  wait 
to  catch  the  unwary,  or  to  obtain  a  clue  to  the  dis- 
covery of  Conventicles.  Many  of  them  perished  in 
poverty,  shame,  and  despair  ;  smitten,  as  their  victims 
thought,  by  the  avenging  hand  of  God.  To  informers 
belonged  a  low  coarse  villainy,  peculiar  to  themselves  ; 

*  The  letters  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  from  which  all  these 
particulars  are  taken,  are  abridged  in  the  "Calendar"  for  1663. 
Any  one  wishing  to  investigate  the  subject  should  study  these 
letters  in  connection  with  Drake's  "  Eboracum,"  and  Whitaker's 
"  Loidis  and  Elmete." 


3IO 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 


their  criminality  could  not  but  be  largely  shared 
by  others,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  system,  of  which 
they  were  the  instruments,  attached  mainly  to  the 
Government  which  condescended  to  employ  them.* 

At  this  point  in  our  history  I  may  appropriately 
answer  two  questions  which  naturally  arise  respecting 
the  Nonconformists,  Where  did  they  worship  }  and  how 
were  the  ejected  ministers  supported  }  These  ques- 
tions lead  us  into  by-paths,  and  entering  them  v/e  cannot 
avoid  wandering  a  little  further  than  strict  chronological 
order  may  allow.  But,  although  I  somewhat  anticipate 
subsequent  periods,  it  will  not  matter ;  we  shall  pre- 
sently return  to  the  highway  by  the  gate  through  which 
we  leave  it,  and  the  remembrance  of  what  we  pick  up 
in  our  short  ramble  will  enable  us  better  to  understand 
much  which  follows. 

If  Nonconformists  would  adore  the  Almighty  as 
their  consciences  dictated,  they  had  to  do  so  in  con- 
cealment, and  to  adopt  ingenious  devices  to  avoid 
notice,  or  to  elude  pursuit.  In  the  old  Tudor  Mansion, 
at  Compton  Winyates,  Warwickshire,  there  is  a  chapel 
in  the  roof  with  secret  passages  contrived  for  the  safety 
of  Popish  recusants  ;  and  in  Oxburgh  Hall,  in  Norfolk, 
there  is  a  recess  within  a  small  closet,  with  a  trap-door 
concealed  in  the  pavement.  These  contrivances  were 
imitated  by  Protestant  Nonconformists  in  the  days  of 
Charles  II.  An  instance  of  this  kind,  not  long  since, 
could  be  shown  among  the  ruins  of  the  Priory  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  Smithfield,  consisting  of  subterranean 
ways  and  doors  in  the  crypt.  The  Baptists  of  Bristol 
hung  up  a  curtain,  and  placed  their  minister  behind  it, 

*  Amongst  the  papers  which  belonged  to  the  Secretary  of 
State,  and  which  are  now  preserved  in  the  Record  Office,  is  an 
informer's  note-book  belonging  to  this  period. 


1663.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  311 

SO  that  a  spy  coming  in  could  not  see  the  speaker. 
When  a  suspicious  person  made  his  appearance  it  was 
customary  for  the  congregation  to  begin  singing,  and 
for  the  preacher  to  pause.  At  Andover,  it  is  said,  that 
the  Dissenters  met  for  prayer  in  a  dark  room,  until  a 
ray  of  morning  light,  struggling  down  the  chimney, 
announced  the  hour  to  depart.* 

In  the  village  of  Eversden,  in  the  County  of  Cam- 
bridge, stands  an  old  Manor  house,  moated  round  and 
approached  by  an  ancient  bridge.  It  is  reported  that  a 
vehicle  might  be  often  seen  crossing  that  bridge  after 
dark,  in  the  time  of  persecution,  on  its  way  to  Cam- 
bridge, to  bring  back  Francis  Holcroft,  to  preach  at 
midnight  in  the  wood,  which  skirted  the  back  of  the 
edifice.  There  was  once  a  Gospel  Beech  in  the  Wolds 
of  Gloucestershire,  a  Gospel  Oak  near  Kentish  Town, 
and  an  Oak  of  Reformation  in  Kett  the  Tanner's 
Camp,  near  the  City  of  Norwich,  and  to  these  may  be 
added  the  Oak  at  Eversden,  remaining  within  the 
memory  of  the  present  generation,  called  the  Pulpit 
Tree,  a  sort  of  Christian  Dodona,  from  which  the 
minister  just  named  announced  the  Word  of  Life.  In 
the  woods  near  Hitchin,  tradition  reports,  that  John 
Bunyan  used,  after  nightfall,  to  gather  together  great 
numbers  of  the  neighbouring  peasantry  ;  and  at  Duck- 
infield,  in  Cheshire,  people  can  still  point  out  the  place 
where  the  "  proscribed  ministers  were  met  by  their 
faithful  adherents,  when  the  pious  service  of  prayer, 
praise,  and  exhortation  had  no  other  walls  to  surround 
it  but  the  oaken  thicket,  and  no  other  roof  for  its  pro- 
tection but  the  canopy  of  Heaven."t 

*  These  are  all  local  traditions. 

t  Aspland's  "  History  of  the  Old  Nonconformists  in  Duckin- 
field."     Like   stories   are   told   of  Bradley  Wood   near  Newton 


312  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VII  [. 

A  few  of  the  ejected  ministers  lived  in  comfortable 
circumstances.  Inheriting  a  fortune,  or  acquiring  pro- 
perty during  their  connection  with  the  Establishment, 
they  were  provided  against  pecuniary  inconvenience 
after  the  Restoration.  John  Owen  must  have  derived 
from  the  Deanery  of  Christchurch  something  consider- 
able, to  which  additions  were  made  by  the  bequest  of  a 
relative,  if  not  by  the  profits  of  his  publications.  He 
had"  an  estate  at  Stadham,  whither  he  retired  on  his 
removal  from  Oxford  ;  and,  after  his  second  marriage 
in  1667,  he  was  enabled  to  keep  his  carriage,  and  a 
country  house  at  Ealing  in  Middlesex.*  John  Tombes, 
the  Antipsedobaptist,  married  a  rich  widow  at  Salis- 
bury, not  long  before  the  King's  return,  and  lived  in 
that  city  upon  her  estate,  visiting  the  Bishop  and  en- 
joying the  friendship  of  other  dignitaries.j  Some  of 
those  who  were  compelled  to  renounce  their  incum- 
bencies, adopted  secular  employments  as  a  means  of 
livelihood  ;  some  became  physicians  or  lawyers,  some 
established  schools,  which,  however,  were  liable  to  be 
broken  up  by  the.  Five  Mile  Act,  and  several  became 
chaplains  or  tutors  in  private  families.^  John  Howe 
spent  about  five  years  in  Ireland,  at  Antrim  Castle, 
with  its  spacious  and  richly  timbered  park,  upon  the 
banks  of  the  charming  Lough  Neagh,  where  he 
administered  the  ordinances  of  religion  to  the  family  of 
Lord  Massarene.§  Dr.  Jacomb  enjoyed  the  friendship 
of  the  Countess  of  Exeter,  to  whom  he  had  been 
chaplain ;    and,   after  his  resignation  of  St.   Martin's, 

Abbot,  and  of  Collier's  Wood  in  Gloucestershire.  Places  of 
worship  erected  or  publicly  used  during  times  of  indulgence  or 
connivance,  will  be  noticed  in  the  next  Volume. 

*  "  Life  of  Owen,"  by  Orme.        f  Nelson's  "  Life  of  Bull,"  253. 

X  Kennet,  903,  905.  §  "  Life  "  by  Rogers,  130,  140. 


1663.]  772^^   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  313 

Ludgate,  he  found  a  comfortable  home  in  her  town 
house,  where  he  made  it  his  constant  care  to  promote 
domestic  religion.  John  Flavel  lived  at  Hudscott  Hall, 
belonging  to  the  family  of  the  Rolles,  near  South 
Molton,  in  Devonshire.  Supported  by  the  liberality, 
and  screened  by  the  influence  of  the  Lord  of  the 
domain,  he  there,  amidst  plantations,  gardens,  and 
other  rural  scenes,  gathered  together  the  materials  of 
his  "  Husbandry  Spiritualized."  There,  too,  he  assem- 
bled around  him,  as  best  he  could,  sometimes  at  mid- 
night, the  members  of  his  former  parish  flock,  and 
interested  and  instructed  them  by  ingenious  illustrations 
adapted  to  their  rustic  habits  and  tastes.* 

Those  who  steadily  laboured,  with  more  or  less 
publicity,  would  receive  such  assistance  from  their 
hearers  as  was  voluntarily  contributed.  But  Richard 
Baxter,  as  he  informs  us,  pursued  a  very  independent 
course,  and  sought  to  imitate  the  Apostle  Paul  by  not 
being  chargeable  to  any.  Dropping  into  a  gossiping 
humour  he  declares,  in  his  "  Life  and  Times,"  that  for 
eleven  years  he  preached  for  nothing  ;  that  he  did  not 
receive  a  groat  but  what  he  returned,  unless  it  were 
between  forty  and  fifty  pounds  given  him  at  different 
times,  partly  to  defray  his  prison  charges,  and  an 
annuity  of  ten  pounds  sent  by  a  friend.  Having 
printed  about  seventy  books,  no  one,  whether  Lord, 
Knight,  or  other  person  to  whom  they  were  dedicated, 
ever  offered  him  a  shilling,  except  the  Corporation  of 
Coventry,  and  Lady  Rous,  each  of  whom  presented 
him  with  a  piece  of  plate  of  the  value  of  four  pounds. 
The  fifteenth  copy  of  a  work  was  his  due  from  the 
publisher,  but  he  gave  them  away  to  the  amount  of 

*  Palmer's  "  Nonconformist  Memorial,"  I.  352. 


314  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

many  thousands  amongst  his   friends,  who,  noble   or 
ignoble,  offered  him  not  a  sixpence  in  return.* 

Some  of  the  ejected,  reduced  to  extremities,  were 
discovered  under  the  concealments  which  from  poverty 
they  contrived.  Mr.  Grove,  a  man  of  great  opulence, 
whose  seat  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Birdbush,  in 
Wiltshire,  in  consequence  of  his  wife's  dangerous  illness, 
sent  to  the  minister  of  the  parish.  The  minister  was 
riding  out  with  the  hounds,  when  the  messenger  arrived, 
and  he  replied  that  he  would  visit  the  gentleman  when 
the  hunt  was  over.  Mr.  Grove,  having  expressed  his 
displeasure  that  the  clergyman  should  follow  his  diver- 
sions rather  than  attend  to  his  flock,  one  of  the  servants 
took  the  liberty  of  saying,  "  Our  shepherd,  sir,  if  you 
will  send  for  him,  can  pray  very  well  :  we  have  often 
heard  him  in  the  field."  Upon  this  the  shepherd  was 
sent  for,  and  Mr.  Grove  asking  him  whether  he  could 
pray,  the  shepherd  replied,  "  God  forbid,  sir,  I  should 
live  one  day  without  prayer."  Upon  being  desired  to 
pray  with  the  sick  lady,  he  did  it  so  pertinently,  with 
such  fluency,  and  with  such  fervour,  as  greatly  to 
astonish  all  who  listened.  As  they  rose  from  their 
knees  the  gentleman  observed  :  "  Your  language  and 
manner  discover  you  to  be  a  very  different  person  from 
what  your  appearance  indicates.  I  conjure  you  to 
inform  me  who  and  what  you  are,  and  what  were  your 
views  and  situation  in  life  before  you  came  into  my 
service."  To  this  the  shepherd  rejoined,  that  he  was 
one  of  the  ministers  who  had  been  lately  ejected  from 
the  Church,  and  that,  having  nothing  left,  he  was 
content  to  adopt  the  honest  employment  of  keeping 
sheep.  "  Then  you  shall  be  my  shepherd,"  rejoined 
the  Squire,  and  immediately  erected  a  Meeting-house 

*  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  142. 


1664.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  315 

on  his  own  estate,  in  which  Mr.  Ince  (for  that  was  the 
shepherd's  name)  preached  and  gathered  a  congrega- 
tion of  Dissenters.* 

Numerous  anecdotes  are  recorded  by  Calamy,  and 
others,  of  the  remarkable  manner  in  which  certain 
ejected  ministers  amidst  their  privations  received 
assistance.  If  we  beHeve  (and  who  that  accepts  the 
New  Testament  can  doubt  it  ?)  that  a  special  Provi- 
dence watches  over  those  who  seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness,  we  are  prepared  to  dis- 
cover special  Divine  interpositions  on  behalf  of  men 
distinguished  by  integrity,  faith,  devotion,  and  self- 
sacrifice. 

Within  two  years  after  the  passing  of  the  Act  of 
Uniformity,  the  clergy  exerted  themselves  to  obtain 
further  legislation  in  favour  of  the  Church.  From  a 
petition  which  they  presented  to  Parliament  in  the  year 
1664,  it  appears  they  were  anxious  for  the  enactment 
of  severe  laws  against  Anabaptists,  who  were  com- 
plained of  as  fraudulently  industrious  in  making 
proselytes.  They  also  desired  to  promote  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  Day,  by  increasing  the  fine  of 
twelve  pence  in  every  case  of  non-attendance  upon 
Divine  service.  They, wished  the  clergy  to  be  assisted 
in  recovering  tithes,  not  exceeding  the  value  of  forty 
shillings,  by  less  expensive  means  than  law-suits,  and 
they  requested  a  more  equitable  method  of  clerical 
taxation  than  that  which  then  existed.  They  further 
asked  for  an  augmentation  of  the  incomes  of  Vicars 
and  Curates,  and  for  the  enforcement  of  the  payment 
of  Church  rates.f 

*   Palmer,  II.   503.     The  correctness  of  this  anecdote  is  sub- 
stantiated in  a  Httle  book  entitled  "  The  Church  at  Birdbush." 
t  Wilkins'  "Concilia,"  IV.  580. 


3i6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

How  far  this  petition,  which  points  to  the  alarming 
increase  of  the  Anabaptists,  might  influence  certain 
proceedings  of  the  same  year,  it  is  a  fact,  that  a  law 
for  the  suppression  of  Nonconformity  soon  afterwards 
appeared.  Charles,  when  proroguing  Parliament  in  the 
month  of  July,  1663,  had  promised  a  further  measure 
against  Conventicles.  The  recent  Act  of  Uniformity 
had  rendered  the  Dissenting  clergy  liable  to  three 
months'  imprisonment  if  they  publicly  preached,  but  it 
had  not  directly  touched  the  case  of  laymen,  except  so 
far  as  schoolmasters  were  concerned.  Through  the 
application  of  Elizabeth's  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  of 
other  laws  for  repressing  civil  disaffection,  laymen, 
frequenting  Conventicles,  became  liable  to  penalties  ; 
but  the  Conventicle  Act,  now  to  be  described,  aimed, 
by  a  direct  and  decisive  blow,  at  crushing  for  ever  the 
nests  of  sedition.  It  was  passed  in  the  month  of  May.* 
It  recognized  the  Act  of  Elizabeth  as  still  in  force,  and 
it  provided,  that  no  person  of  sixteen,  or  upwards, 
should  be  present  at  any  assembly  of  five,  or  more, 
under  colour  of  religion  "  in  other  manner  than  is 
allowed  by  the  Liturgy."  It  provided  that  every  such 
offender  should,  for  the  first  offence  be  imprisoned  for 
a  period  not  exceeding  three  months,  or  pay  five 
pounds  ;  for  the  second  offence  be  imprisoned  not  ex- 
ceeding six  months,  or  pay  ten  pounds ;  and  for  a  third 
offence  be  transported,  for  seven  years,  to  any  foreign 
plantation  (Virginia  and  New  England  only  excepted) ; 
the  goods  of  the  offenders  to  be  distrained  for  the 
charges  of  transportation,  or  his  service  made  over  as  a 
labourer  for  five  years.  The  payment  of  one  hundred 
pounds  would  discharge  from  such  imprisonment  and 

*  See  "Commons'   Journals,"   April   27th,  28th;    May    12th, 
14th,  1 6th. 


1664:]  THE   CFTURCIT  OF   THE  RESTORATION.  317 

transportation,  and  such  a  fine  was  to  be  appropriated 
for  the  repair  of  churches  and  highways.  Escape 
before  transportation  subjected  the  victim  to  death. 
Power  was  given  to  prevent  Conventicles  being  held, 
or,  if  held,  to  dissolve  them.  Any  one  who  allowed  a 
meeting  in  a  house  or  outhouse,  in  woods  or  grounds, 
incurred  the  same  penalties  as  the  attendants.  Gaolers 
were  forbidden  to  allow  offenders  to  remain  at 
large,  or  to  permit  any  person  to  join  them.  The 
houses  of  Peers  were  exempted  from  search,  except  by 
Royal  warrant,  or  in  the  presence  of  a  Lieutenant,  a 
Deputy-Lieutenant,  or  two  Magistrates.  Quakers,  for 
refusing  to  take  oaths,  were  to  suffer  transportation. 
Noblemen,  if  they  offended  against  the  law,  were,  in 
the  first  two  instances,  to  pay  double  fines,  and  in  the 
third  instance  to  be  tried  by  their  peers.* 

The  Bill  proceeded  upon  the  principle,  already  esta- 
blished by  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  that  Nonconformist 
clergymen  were  incompetent  to  preach,  and  it  laid  down 
another  principle,  a  legitimate  corollary  of  the  former, 
that  Nonconformist  laymen  were,  as  such,  incompetent 
to  worship.  The  intolerant  measure  would  seem  to 
have  passed  the  two  Houses  with  little  or  no  discussion, 
as  no  notice  is  taken  in  the  "Parliamentary  History" 
of  speeches  delivered  upon  the  occasion  ;  and  Claren- 
don remarks,  that,  at  this  time,  there  was  great  order 
and  unanimity  in  debates,  and  Parliament  despatched 
more  business  of  public  importance  and  consequence 
than  it  had  done  before,  in  twice  the  time.f  As  we 
examine  the  Act,  we  cannot  help  calling  to  mind  the 
ordinance  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  1646,  forbidding 
the  use  of  the  Prayer  Book  "  in  any  private  place  or 
family."  Here,  as  in  other  cases,  are  seen  the  footsteps 
*   16  Car.  II,  c.  4.  t    "Hist,"  11 15. 


3i8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

of  avenging  Deities,  and,  as  is  tlieir  wont,  they  meted 
out  penalties  exceeding  the  original  offence.  In  this 
case,  fines  of  five  pounds  and  ten  pounds,  indeed,  just 
equalled  the  pecuniary  mulcts  of  Presbyterian  law  ;  but 
the  one  year's  imprisonment,  without  bail  or  mainprise, 
threatened  by  the  Long  Parliament  against  a  third 
offence,  was  now  thrown  into  the  shade  by  the  enact- 
ment, first,  of  a  penalty  of  transportation  for  seven 
years,  in  cases  where  means  did  not  exist  for  paying 
the  sum  of  one  hundred  pounds  ;  and  next,  of  capital 
punishment,  in  case  of  the  convicted  Conventicler  being 
caught  after  making  his  escape. 

The  difference  in  some  respects,  the  similarity  in 
others,  between  the  principles  upon  which  the  Anglican 
politicians  proceeded  in  their  conduct  towards  Puritans, 
and  the  principles  upon  which  the  Puritan  politicians 
had  proceeded  in  reference  to  Anglicans,  has  been  little, 
if  at  all,  noticed.  As  to  the  difference,  the  Conven- 
ticle Act  regarded  many  loyal  men  as  disloyal, 
punishing  men  for  religious  convictions,  under  pretence 
of  preventing  rebellion  ;  on  the  other  hand  the  Long 
Parliament  and  Oliver  Cromwell  had  forbidden  the  use 
of  the  Prayer  Book,  in  order  to  break  up  assemblies  for 
worship  held  by  persons  who,  not  without  reason,  were 
suspected  of  political  disaffection.  There  was  a  further 
difference — Clarendon  and  his  party  sought  to  establish 
uniformity  by  the  use  of  the  Anglican  Liturgy;  the 
Presbyterians  had  aimed  at  their  uniformity  through  a 
prohibition  of  that  Liturgy,  not  by  any  enforcement, 
under  penalties,  of  the  Westminster  Directory.  The 
Anglican  law  was  prescriptive  ;  the  Puritan  prohibitive. 
But  there  is  involved  in  all  this  a  general  resemblance 
between  the  two.  Neither  appears  thoroughly  straight- 
forward ;  each  is  exceedingly  intolerant ;  and  both  aim 


1664.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  319 

at  doing  one  thing,  under  pretence  of  doing  something 
else.  Yet  let  it  not  be  forgotten,  that  while  there  is 
little  to  choose  between  them  in  point  of  principle,  the 
extent  to  which  persecution  was  carried,  under  Charles 
and  his  brother  James,  immensely  exceeded  anything 
reached  under  the  Long  Parliament,  or  under  Oliver 
Cromwell. 

The  new  law  was  ordained  to  take  effect  after  the  ist 
of  July  ;  but  formidable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its 
execution  presented  themselves  as  the  time  approached, 
arising  from  political  disaffection,  from  the  numbers  of 
Nonconformists,  and  from  the  sympathy  which  their 
more  tolerant  neighbours  felt  with  them  in  the  suffer- 
ings which  they  endured.  "  The  Quakers,  Anabaptists, 
and  Fifth  Monarchy  men,"  it  is  stated,  in  the  month  of 
June,  "will  meet  more  daringly  after  the  time  limited 
in  the  Act,  and  say  they  will  neither  pay  money  nor 
be  banished.  They  have  solicited  others  of  different 
persuasions  to  join  them  in  opposing  the  Act,  and  they 
get  encouragement,  though  no  promises.  If  dealt  with 
severely,  a  body  of  10,000  would  rise,  and  demand  ful- 
filment of  the  King's  Declaration  for  liberty  of  con- 
science. They  say,  if  their  spirit  of  suffering  be  turned 
into  a  spirit  of  action,  woe  to  those  who  stand  in  their 
way.  Other  Sectaries  resolve  to  keep  to  the  limits  of 
the  Act,  and  increase  their  number  as  they  can  safely. 
The  hopes  of  a  war  with  the  Dutch,  fermented  by  spies 
at  Court,  dispose  the  desperadoes  to  dangerous  resolu- 
tions."* This  is  the  representation  of  an  enemy,  and 
cannot  be  trusted  for  accuracy  in  particulars  ;  but,  so  far 
as  a  general  determination  to  persevere  in  worship  is 
concerned,  probably  the  writer  is  perfectly  correct,  and 
the  whole  drift  of  his  communication  manifests  the 
*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1664,  June  20th. 


320 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 


difficulty  which  was  felt  with  regard  to  the  anticipated 
execution  of  the  new  statute.  The  Congregational 
Churches  about  Furness  were  reported  as  resolved  to 
meet,  notwithstanding  the  Act  ;  and  as  wasting  their 
money  by  rewards,  and  by  maintaining  prisoners,  and 
other  people,  who  absconded  in  order  that  they  might 
not  be  cited  to  bear  witness.* 

After  the  Conventicle  Act  came  into  force  the  number 
of  offenders  excited  attention,  and  created  difficulty. 
Newgate  was  so  full  that  it  bred  a  malignant  fever,  which 
sent  many  to  their  long  home  ;  and  the  magistrates, 
who  thought  their  Nonconformist  neighbours  "  unfit  to 
breathe  their  native  air  when  living,  buried  them  as 
brethren,  when  dead."  Stress  was  laid  upon  the  great 
number  of  Dissenters,  both  by  enemies  and  friends. 
They  were  said  to  exceed  "  two  parts  of  the  common 
people ; "  to  have  connection  with  the  nobility  and 
gentry  ;  and  to  be  so  numerous  that  his  Majesty  could 
not  force  them  to  conformity,  by  banishment  or  death, 
without  endangering  the  safety  of  the  kingdom.  Nor 
were  there  wanting  Churchmen,  to  plead  for  a  lenient 
treatment  of  their  persecuted  brethren,  whilst  they 
themselves  complained  that  rulers  were  winding  the 
pin  of  Government  so  high  as  to  threaten  to  crack  its 
sinews,  and  that  so  much  formalism  and  corruption 
prevailed  in  the  Establishment  as  to  provoke  people  to 
wish  for  its  overthrow. f 

Of  the  existence  at  this  time  of  alarming  disaffisction 
amongst  persons  of  Republican  opinions  who  had  served 
in  the  Army,  there  cannot  be  any  doubt.  Abundant, 
indications  of  it  are  afforded  in  contemporary  letters. 
How,    indeed,    could    disaffection    but    exist    under    a 

*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  11.,"  1664,  June  24th. 
t   Ibid.,  1664,  Sept.  30th,  Nov.  i8th,  Sept.  5th,  June  2nd. 


1664]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  321 

Government,  which,  whilst  denouncing  plots  and 
plotters,  was,  by  its  own  intolerance,  stirring  people 
up  to  rebellion  ?  No  one  can  be  surprised  that  old 
soldiers,  who  had  fought  for  liberty,  felt  disposed  again 
to  draw  the  sword,  if  any  chance  of  success  appeared. 
Where  no  signs  of  resistance  were  made,  and  very  many 
persons,  either  from  worldly  policy,  or  from  Christian 
patience  resolved  to  be  quiet,  there  throbbed  intense 
indignation  at  the  infliction  of  so  much  Avrong— a 
temper  with  which  it  is  dangerous  for  any  Government 
to  trifle.  The  suspicion  that  Nonconformists  were 
engaged  in  plots  contributed  to  increase  a  persecuting 
spirit.  Local  attacks  might  spring  from  Anglican 
fanaticism,  from  private  pique,  and  revenge,  from  the 
vulgar  insolence  of  mObs,  and  from  the  avarice  or  am- 
bition of  informers  ;  but  the  assaults  which  proceeded 
immediately  from  head-quarters,  as  State  Papers  dis- 
tinctly prove,  were  provoked  principally  by  political 
fears. 

The  Conventicle  Act  was  executed  with  severity.  A 
congregation  meeting  at  a  baker's  house  in  Maryport 
Street,  Bristol,  was  visited  by  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen, 
who  demanded  admission  ;  the  baker  refused,  when  an 
entrance  was  forced  by  means  of  a  crowbar,  and  the 
people  and  the  minister  escaped  through  a  back  door. 
They  were  "  hunted  by  the  Nimrods,  but  the  Lord  hid 
them  many  days."  Once,  somewhere  in  Corn  Street, 
a  guard  of  musketeers  came  to  take  people  into  custody, 
when,  it  being  evening,  the  persecuted  escaped  through 
a  cellar  into  Baldwin  Street.  At  another  time,  when 
the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  again  beset  the  house,  a 
brother,  sending  his  companions  upstairs,  contrived,  by 
means  of  a  great  cupboard,  to  hide  the  garret  door.* 

*  "Broadmead  Records"  (Hanserd  Knollys  Society),  76. 
VOL.   III.  Y 


322  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

Presbyterians  at  Chester,  disturbed  in  their  worship, 
hid  themselves  under  beds  and  locked  themselves  in 
closets  ;  sixty  men  and  women,  in  a  village  of  Somerset- 
shire, were  apprehended,  and,  in  default  of  paying  fines, 
were  sent  to  gaol* 

Whilst  Nonconformists  were  suffering  from  the  Con- 
venticle Act,  the  King  recurred  to  his  scheme  for  grant- 
ing indulgences ;  in  favour  of  which  Lord  Arlington, 
on  behalf  of  the  Catholics,  and  the  Lord  Privy  Seal, 
interested  for  the  Presbyterians,  plied  an  efficacious 
argument.  They  urged  that,  frightened  by  recent  laws 
and  the  zeal  of  Parliament  in  the  cause  of  the  Church, 
Dissenters  would  gladly  compound  for  liberty  at  a 
reasonable  rate,  by  which  means  a  good  yearly  revenue 
might  be  raised,  and  concord  and  tranquillity  be  esta- 
blished throughout  the  kingdom.  The  King  caught  at 
this  reasoning  :  a  bill  was  prepared,  in  which  Catholics 
as  well  as  Protestants  were  included  ;  a  schedule  having 
been  drawn  up,  computing  what  they  would  be  willing 
to  pay.  The  I3ill  entrusted  the  King  with  a  dispensing 
power,  and  the  Royal  origin  of  the  measure  becoming 
known  to  the  Peers,  they  offered  no  opposition  to  the 
first  reading ;  but  afterwards,  the  Lord  Treasurer,  and 
many  of  the  Bishops,  sharply  opposed  it,  and  Clarendon 
threw  the  weight  of  his  influence  into  the  same  scale. 
In  a  courtier-like  speech,  reported  by  himself,  he  upheld 
Charles'  Protestantism,  and  cleverly  insinuated  that  the 
question  was  not  "  whether  the  King  were  worthy  of 
that  trust,  but  whether  that  trust  were  worthy  of  the 
King,"  that  it  would  inevitably  expose  him  "  to  trouble 
and  vexation,"  and  "  subject  him  to  daily  and  hourly 
importunities  ;  which  must  be  so  much  the  more  uneasy 
to  a  nature  of  so  great  bounty  and  generosity,"  and 
*  "  State  Papers,"  1665,  July  3rd  and  15th. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  323 

that  nothing  was  so  ungrateful  to  him  as  to  be  obliged 
to  refuse.  Even  the  Duke  of  York  expressed  dissatis- 
faction, influenced,  as  is  presumed,  by  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor. Few  spoke  in  favour  of  the  Bill,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  there  should  be  no  question  as  to  its  being 
committed,  "  which  was  the  most  civil  way  of  rejecting 
it,  and  left  it  to  be  no  more  called  for."  The  only 
results  were,  the  mortification  of  his  Majesty,  and 
the  augmentation  of  bitterness  against  the  Roman 
Catholics.* 

An  important  change  had  occurred  in  the  relation  of 
the  clergy  to  the  State  at  the  opening  of  the  year  1665, 
which  I  must  step  back  to  notice.  In  ancient  times 
they  had  possessed  the  privilege  of  self-taxation,  and 
this  privilege  survived  the  Reformation.  Ecclesiastical 
persons  continued  to  vote  subsidies  from  their  own 
body  :  the  proportions  being  assessed  by  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners.  The  censures  of  the  Church  fell  upon 
those  who  did  not  pay,  and  if  Sheriffs  were  remiss  in 
executing  the  writ  exconinmnicato  capiendo,  Bishops  had 
their  own  prisons  in  which  to  confine  the  refractory  :  it 
may  be  concluded,  that  it  came  within  the  power  of 
diocesans  to  sequester  the  profits  of  incumbencies,  when 
the  holders  of  them  refused  to  meet  their  assessments. 
Parhament,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  had  confirmed 
such  aids  ;  and  from  that  time  the  clerical  tax,  after 
being  ratified  by  the  two  Houses,  could  be  levied  in 
the  way  of  distress.  The  whole  of  this  system  of  taxa- 
tion had  disappeared  in  1 641,  when  ministers  of  religion, 
in  common  with  other  people,  became  subject  to  Par- 
liamentary assessment.  A  proposition  to  the  effect 
that  ministers  should  be  exempted  from  paying  tenths 
and  first-fruits  had  been  entertained  in  an  early  part  of 

*  Clarendon,  11 30. 


324  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

the  Protectorate,  and  it  had  even  been  suggested  that 
they  should  be  relieved  from  taxation  altogether  ;  * 
but  this  excess  of  liberality  bore  no  fruit,  and  at  the 
Restoration  the  clergy  fell  back  into  their  old  position. 
After  the  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  had  been  com- 
pleted, in  the  winter  of  1661-62,  Convocation  did 
nothing  but  grant  subsidies,  beyond  discussing  such 
matters  as  the  composition  of  a  school  grammar,  a 
petition  from  poor  clergymen  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  or 
the  translation  of  the  Prayer  Book  into  Latin.f  A 
grant  of  four  subsidies  in  the  year  1663  was  confirmed 
by  Act  of  Parliament ;  %  but  before  the  close  of  that 
year,  the  Bishops  and  clergy  began  to  regard  this  rating 
of  themselves  as  troublesome,  and  they  found  that  both 
the  Court  and  the  Commons  were  discontented,  unless 
Convocation  fixed  contributions  at  a  rate  beyond  all 
reasonable  proportion.  The  petition  of  the  clergy, 
already  noticed,  referred  to  the  existing  mode  of  taxa- 
tion, as  a  hardship.  Sheldon,  and  other  prelates,  conse- 
quently, it  is  supposed,  arranged  with  the  Government 
that  the  ancient  custom  of  voting  subsidies  should  be 
waived,  and  that  spiritual  as  well  as  secular  persons 
should  be  included  in  the  Money  Bills  of  the  Commons. 
In  promoting  this  alteration,  the  Archbishop  and  his 
Episcopal  helpers  did  not  appear  in  the  character  of 
High  Churchmen,  the  alteration  being  thoroughly  op- 
posed to  ancient  canon  law.  Hence,  to  encourage  the 
clergy,  it  was  proposed  that  two  of  the  last  four  sub- 
sidies should  be  remitted,  and  a  clause  inserted  in  the 
new  Act,  for  saving  ancient  rights.  The  bill  passed  on 
the   9th   of  February,   1665,  and,  at   the   same   time, 

*  Vol.  II.  of  this  Hist.,  84. 

t  Cardwell's  "  Synodalia,"  II.  680,  et  seq. 

X  Collier,  II.  893. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION. 


325 


parochial  ministers  acquired  the  privilege  of  voting  for 
members  of  Parliament.  Collier  remarks,  "  that  the 
clergy  were  gainers  by  this  change  is  more  than  ap- 
pears." *  He  is  right.  No  doubt  the  change  struck  a 
fatal  blow  at  the  importance  and  authority  of  Convo- 
cation ;  for  Convocation,  like  Parliament,  had  been 
valued  by  Sovereigns  because  of  its  holding  the  purse- 
strings  of  a  portion  of  the  people,  and  when  money  no 
longer  flowed  into  the  exchequer  in  the  form  of  eccle- 
siastical subsidies,  Convocation  sunk  into  neglect  and 
disuse.  It  would  be  surprising — if  it  were  a  fact — that 
State  Churchmen,  desiring  to  maintain  independence, 
did  not  foresee  the  operation  of  the  change,  and  did  not 
attempt  to  prevent  it :  but  the  truth  is.  Churchmen, 
zealous  for  independence,  just  after  the  Restoration, 
were  neither  numerous  nor  influential,  the  majority  of 
those  in  orders  being  decidedly  Erastian  in  their  ten- 
dencies. The  change,  however,  was  one  which,  if  it 
had  not  been  brought  about  by  motives  of  expediency, 
must  have  followed  in  the  wake  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion, the  anomaly  of  a  particular  class  left  to  tax  itself 
not  being  permissible  in  modern  times  :  nor  can  it  be 
doubted,  that  it  is  far  better  for  the  clergy  and  the 
laity  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  bearing  together 
the  burdens  of  their  country. 

Five  months  after  this  Act  had  passed,  Sheldon 
issued  orders  and  instructions  to  the  Bishops  of  his 
province,  concerning  ordinations,  pluralists  and  their 
curates,  lectures  and  lecturers,  schoolmasters  and  in- 
structors of  youth,  practisers  of  physic,  and  Noncon- 
formist ministers.  He  complained  of  divers  unworthy 
persons,  of  late  crept  into  the  ministry,  to  the  scandal 
of  the  Church,  and  the  dissatisfaction  of  good  men  ; 

*  Parry's  "Parliaments  and  Councils,"  551. 


326  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  VIII. 

and  to  remedy  these  evils,  Bishops  were  ordered  to  be 
very  careful  what  persons  they  received  for  ordination. 
Inquiries  were  made  touching  pluralities,  and  whether 
pluralists  kept  able,  orthodox,  and  conformable  curates 
upon  the  benefices  where  they  did  not  themselves 
reside.  The  word  curates,  it  may  be  remarked  in 
passing,  had  now  changed  from  its  ancient  to  its  modern 
meaning ;  and  having  been  applied  generally  to  all 
pastors,  it  was  introduced  by  the  Archbishop  as  the 
title  of  distinct  and  subordinate  officers.* 

*  Dated  July  7,  1665  ;  Wilkins'  "  Concilia,"  IV.  582.     Note  in 
Cardvvell's  "Documentary  Annals,"  II.  321. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  327 


CHAPTER   IX. 

The  year  1665  was  a  terrible  one  in  the  annals  of 
London.*  Two  men  in  Drury  Lane  had  sickened  in 
the  previous  December.  Upon  inquiry,  headache,  fever, 
burning  sensations,  dimness  of  sight,  and  livid  spots 
had  indicated  that  the  Plague  .was  in  the  capital  of 
England.  The  intelligence  soon  spread.  The  weekly 
bills  of  mortality,  for  the  next  four  months,  exhibited 
an  increase  of  deaths.  The  month  of  May  showed  that 
the  disease  was  extending,  and  in  the  first  week  of  July, 
1006  persons  fell  victims  to  the  destroyer.  Men  fled 
in  terror ;  vehicles  of  all  kinds  thronged  the  highways, 
filled  with  those  whose  circumstances  enabled  them  to 
change  their  abode,  but  multitudes,  especially  of  the 
poorer  class,  remained,  and,  being  crowded  together  in 
narrow  streets,  and  alleys,  they  were  soon  marked  by 
the  Angel  of  Death.  The  mortality  reported  from 
week  to  week  rose  from  hundreds  to  thousands,  until 
during  the  month  of  September,  the  terrific  number  of 

*  In  "  Notes  and  Queries  "  may  be  found  a  curious  and  in- 
teresting collection  of  predictions  of  the  Plague  and  Fire  of 
London.  See  "  Choice  Notes— History,"  236.  "  In  delving 
among  what  may  be  termed  the  popular  religious  literature  of  the 
latter  end  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  early  part  of  the  reign  of 
Charles,  we  become  aware  of  the  existence  of  a  kind  of  night- 
mare, which  the  public  of  that  age  were  evidently  labouring  under 
—a  strong  and  vivid  impression  that  some  terrible  calamity  was 
impending  over  the  metropolis." 


328  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

10,000  occurred  in  one  week.  In  one  night,  it  is  said, 
4000  expired.  Shop  after  shop,  house  after  house  was 
closed.  The  long  red  cross,  with  the  words,  "  Lord, 
have  mercy  upon  us  "  inscribed  upon  the  door,  indicated 
what  was  going  on  within.  Watchmen  stood  armed 
with  halberds,  to  prevent  communication  between  the 
inmates  and  their  neighbours.  Instead  of  the  crowds 
which  once  lined  the  thoroughfares,  only  a  few  persons 
crept  cautiously  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  fearful  of 
contact  with  each  other.  "  The  highways  were  un- 
occupied, and  the  travellers  walked  through  by-ways." 
A  coach  was  rarely  seen,  save  when,  with  curtains 
drawn,  it  conveyed  some  Plague-stricken  mortal  to  the 
pest-house.  Wagons,  laden  with  timber  or  stone,  had 
disappeared,  for  men  had  no  heart  to  build,  and  the 
half-finished  structure  sunk  into  premature  decay. 
Carts,  bringing  provision,  were  not  suffered  within  the 
gates,  markets  were  held  in  the  outskirts,  where  the 
seller  would  not  touch  the  buyer's  money,  until  it  had 
been  purified  by  passing  through  a  vessel  of  vinegar. 
Similar  precautions  were  used  at  the  post-office,  which 
was  so  fumed  morning  and  evening,  whilst  "  letters 
were  aired  over  vinegar,"  that  the  people  employed  in 
it  could  hardly  see  each  other  ;  but,  says  the  writer, 
who  mentions  that  fact,  "  had  the  contagion  been  catch- 
ing by  letters,  they  had  been  dead  long  ago."  *  Grass 
sprung  up  in  the  streets,  and  a  fearful  silence  brooded 
over  the  wide  desolation.  London  cries,  sounds  of 
music,  the  murmur  of  cheerful  groups,  and  the  din  of 
business  ceased.  The  lonely  passenger,  as  he  walked 
along,  shuddered  at  the  shrieks  of  miserable  beings 
tortured  by  disease,  or  at  the  still  more  awful  silence. 

*  "State   Papers,    Dom.,    Charles    II."     London,  August    14, 
1665.     See  also  November  nth. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  329 

Doors  and  windows  were  left  open,  houses  were  empty, 
the  inmates  gone.  Some  dropped  in  the  streets  ;  others 
had  time  to  go  to  the  next  stall  or  porch,  "and  just 
sit  down  and  die."  Men,  who  drove  the  death-carts, 
perished  on  their  way  to  the  pit,  or  fell  dead  upon  the 
corpses,  which  were  tumbled  into  the  place  of  burial. 
A  person  went  home,  hale  and  strong  ;  at  eventide  there 
was  trouble,  and  before  the  morning,  he  was  not.  As 
the  mother  nursed  the  babe,  a  purple  spot  appeared  on 
her  breast,  and,  in  a  short  time,  the  helpless  little  one 
was  clinging  to  its  lifeless  parent. 

The  real  horrors  of  the  Plague-year  were  augmented 
by  imagination.  Men  saw  in  the  heavens  portentous 
forms,  blazing  stars,  and  angels  with  flaming  swords  ; 
on  the  earth  they  discerned  spectres  in  menacing 
attitudes.  Some  fancied  themselves  inspired.  One  of 
these  fanatics  made  the  streets  ring  with  his  cry,  "  Yet 
forty  days,  and  London  shall  be  destroyed."  Another, 
with  nothing  but  a  girdle  round  his  loins,  and  bearing 
a  vessel  of  burning  coals  upon  his  head,  appeared  by 
night  and  by  day,  exclaiming,  "Oh,  the  great  and 
dreadful  God  !  "  There  were  individuals,  as  amidst  the 
plague  of  Athens,  "  who  spent  their  days  in  merriment 
and  folly — who  feared  neither  the  displeasure  of  God, 
nor  the  laws  of  men — not  the  former,  because  they 
deemed  it  the  same  thing  whether  they  worshipped  or 
neglected  to  do  so,  seeing  that  all  in  common  perished 
— not  the  latter,  because  no  one  expected  his  life  would 
last  till  he  received  the  punishment  of  his  crimes;"* 
but  the  greater  part  of  the  population  looked  upon  the 
calamity  in  the  light  of  a  Divine  judgment,  and 
trembled,  with  inexpressible  fear,  at  the  signs  of  God's 
displeasure. 

*  Thucydides,  II.  54- 


330  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

A  Proclamation  appeared  in  July,  appointing  as  a 
fast-day  the  12th  of  that  month;  and,  afterwards,  the 
first  Wednesday  in  every  succeeding  month,  until  the 
Plague  should  cease.  Collections  were  ordered  to  be 
made  on  these  occasions  for  relief  of  the  sufferers  ;  and 
also  forms  of  morning  and  evening  prayer  were  pub- 
lished by  authority,  together  with  "  an  exhortation  fit 
for  the  time."  * 

It  is  more  humiliating  than  surprising,  to  find  how 
far  political  and  ecclesiastical  considerations  became 
mingled  with  the  prevailing  alarm.  Charles  issued  a 
Proclamation  to  the  Lord-Lieutenants  of  Counties,  ex- 
horting them  to  be  extraordinarily  watchful  over  all 
persons  of  seditious  temper,  to  imprison  those  who 
gave  ground  for  suspicion,  and  cause  others  to  give 
security  for  good  conduct  on  any  jealousy  of  a  com- 
motion.f  On  the  other  hand  it  was  affirmed,  that  at 
their  meetings  Nonconformists  expressed  a  sense  of 
the  Lord's  displeasure  for  the  sins  of  His  people,  but 
made  no  reflections  on  the  Government.  Had  the 
King  heard  their  earnest  prayers  for  God's  mercy  and 
favour,  and  their  contrite  confessions  of  sins,  he  would 
not,  it  was  thought,  regard  them  as  unworthy  of  the 
indulgence  which  he  seemed  disposed  to  grant. | 

Henchman,  Bishop  of  London,  wrote  to  Lord  Arling- 
ton, expressing  thanks  for  warnings  relative  to  the 
disorders  which  would  arise,  should  ejected  ministers 

*  "  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1665,  July  6th.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  that,  as  in  late  visitations  of  cholera,  sanitary  regulations 
were  adopted.  Amongst  other  things  it  may  be  noticed  that  the 
Bishop  of  London  would  not  consecrate  any  ground  unless  a  per- 
petuity of  the  same  might  be  first  obtained,  graves  were  dug  deep, 
and  churchyards  were  covered  with  lime.  ("  Calendar,"  1665-66, 
pref.  xiii.) 

t  "  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1665,  August  15th. 

X  Ibid.,  July  22nd.  _, 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  331 

be  allowed  to  occupy  the  vacant  pulpits.  The  sober 
clergy,  he  says,  remained  in  town,  implying  by  the 
statement  that  others  had  fled  ;  and  he  informs  his 
Lordship  that  he  had  refused  some  who  offered  to 
supply  destitute  churches,  suspecting  them  to  be 
factious,  although  they  promised  to  conform.  Most 
of  his  officers  had  deserted  him  and  gone  down  into 
the  country  ;  but  he  could  not  learn  that  any  Noncon- 
formist minister  had  invaded  the  City  pulpits.  He 
was  glad  that  many  who  had  never  attended  Divine 
worship  before,  now  presented  themselves  at  church.* 
The  Bishop  found  it  necessary  to  threaten  with  expul- 
sion from  their  livings  those  who  fled,  if  they  did  not 
resume  their  posts  ;  f  and  Sheldon,  in  the  midst  of  the 
Plague,  issued  a  circular  commanding  the  Bishops  of 
his  province  to  return  the  names  of  all  ejected  ministers  ; 
which  returns  are  preserved  in  the  Lambeth  Library.^ 
To  his  credit  it  should  be  recorded,  that  in  this  season 
of  visitation  he  exerted  himself  for  the  temporal  welfare 
of  his  fellow-creatures,  though  it  does  not  appear  that 
he  manifested  any  great  anxiety  about  their  spiritual 
well-being.  He  directed  frequent  collections  to  be 
made  on  behalf  of  those  who  were  perishing  for  want 
of  the  necessaries  of  human  life,  "thousands  of  poor 
artisans  being  ready  to  starve."  He  wrote  for  help  to 
the  Archbishop  of  York,  and  he  gave  judicious  instruc- 

*  "  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  August  19th. 

t  "  It  is  said,  my  Lord  of  London  hath  sent  to  those  pastors 
that  have  quitted  their  flocks,  by  reason  of  these  times,  that  if  they 
return  not  speedily,  others  will  be  put  into  their  places."  (EUis' 
"  Letters,"  Vol.  IV.) 

%  Neal,  IV.  403.  The  returns  dated  1665  from  Exeter,  St. 
David's  and  Bristol,  are  among  the  Tenison  MSS.  (Lambeth  ;) 
also  the  Bishop  of  Exeter's  (Seth  Ward's)  certificate  of  the  hos- 
pitals, and  almshouses,  pluralists,  lecturers,  schoolmasters,  phy- 
sicians, and  Nonconformists  in  his  diocese. 


332  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

tions  respecting  the  probate  of  wills,  the  large  number 
of  deaths  having  led  to  an  undue  granting  of  admini- 
strations, to  the  increase  of  the  infection  and  the  injury 
of  people's  estates.  His  Grace  directed  that  all  sur- 
rogations  should  be  revoked ;  that  the  granting  of 
administration  and  probate  should  be  suspended  for 
fourteen  days  at  least,  and  that  afterwards  no  adminis- 
tration or  probate  should  pass,  until  the  expiration  of 
one  fortnight  following  the  departure  of  the  deceased  ; 
an  arrangement  which  was  judged  "to  be  a  visible 
means  to  hinder  the  further  dispersing  of  the  pestilence, 
and  to  do  a  right  and  justice  to  the  interested."  * 
Simon  Patrick,  who  held  the  livings  of  Battersea  and 
St.  Paul's,  Covent  Garden,  remained  in  London  through- 
out the  whole  period.  He  studied,  preached,  visited 
the  sick,  and  distributed  alms  ;  and  upon  a  review  of 
the  awful  season  and  his  own  peril,  recorded  the  follow- 
ing words  :  "  I  had  many  heavenly  meditations  in  my 
mind,  and  found  the  pleasure  wherewith  they  filled  the 
soul  was  far  beyond  all  the  pleasures  of  the  flesh.  Nor 
could  I  fancy  anything  that  would  last  so  long,  nor  give 
me  such  joy  and  delight,  as  those  thoughts  which  I  had 
of  the  other  world,  and  the  taste  which  God  vouchsafed 
me  of  it."  t 

Vacant  churches,  neglected  parishes,  and  excited 
multitudes  presented  opportunities  of  usefulness  to 
some  of  the  ejected  ministers,  of  which,  in  spite  of  the 
Bishop's  precautions,  they  were  quick  to  avail  them- 
selves. Thomas  Vincent  had  been  a  student  at  Christ 
Church  when  Dr.  Owen  was  Dean,  and  upon  leaving 
the  University,  became  chaplain  to  the  Earl  of  Leices- 
ter.    He  succeeded  Mr,  Case  in  the  living  of  St.  Mary 

*  Wilkins'  "  Concilia,"  IV.  583. 

t  "  Autobiography  of  Patrick,  Bishop  of  Ely,"  52. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  333 

Magdalen,  Milk  Street,  whence  he  was  ejected  by  the 
Act  of  Uniformity.  In  his  retirement  he  devoted  him- 
self to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  committed  to 
memory  large  portions  of  it,  observing  to  his  friends, 
that  he  did  not  know,  but  that  they  who  had  taken 
from  him  his  pulpit,  might,  in  time,  take  from  him  his 
Bible.  When  the  Plague  broke  out  he  was  residing  at 
Islington  ;  for  some  time  it  did  not  penetrate  into  that 
neighbourhood,  but,  sympathy  with  sufferers,  not  far 
off,  proved  a  stronger  feeling  than  a  regard  for  his  own 
safety.  Contrary  to  the  advice  of  some  of  his  friends, 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  preaching  and  visit- 
ing, in  districts  where  the  pestilence  prevailed  ;  and  he 
states,  as  remarkable,*  that  pious  people  "  died  with 
such  comfort  as  Christians  do  not  ordinarily  arrive 
unto,  except  when  they  are  called  forth  to  suffer 
martyrdom  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ."  So 
extraordinary  was  his  preaching,  that  it  became  a 
general  inquiry  every  week,  where  he  would  be  on  the 
following  Sunday,  and  amongst  the  multitudes  who 
crowded  to  listen  to  his  ministry,  many  persons  were 
awakened  by  his  searching  discourses.  With  a  total 
disregard  of  the  danger  of  such  gatherings  at  such  a 
time,  people  crowded  large  edifices  to  suffocation. 
The  broad  aisles,  as  well  as  the  pews  and  benches,  were 
packed  with  one  dense  mass,  anxious  countenances 
looked  up  to  the  Divine  in  his  black  cap — the  reading 
of  the  Scriptures,  the  prayer,  and  the  sermon,  being 
listened  to  amidst  a  breathless  silence,  only  broken  at 
intervals  by  half-suppressed  sobs  and  supplications. 
Other  methods  of  usefulness  were  employed.  In  a 
volume  of  broadsheets  in  the  British  Museum  may  be 

*  His  book,  entitled  "  God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City,"  pre- 
sents some  most  graphic  accounts  of  the  effects  of  the  pestilence. 


334  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

seen  "  Short  Instructions  for  the  Sick,  especially  who, 
by  contagion  or  otherwise,  are  deprived  of  the  presence 
of  a  faithful  pastor,  by  Richard  Baxter,  written  in  the 
Great  Plague  Year," — full  of  characteristic  appeals,  in- 
tended to  be  pasted  on  the  cottage-wall,  as  a  faithful 
monitor  to  all  the  inmates. 

The  malady  in  London  began  to  decline  in  the  latter 
part  of  September,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  it  ceased, 
when  the  City  soon  filled  again,  resuming  its  wonted 
aspect  of  activity  and  bustle,  and  the  beneficed  clergy 
who  had  fled  reappeared  in  their  pulpits.  The  minister 
of  St.  Olave's,  where  Pepys  attended,  was  the  first  to 
leave,  the  last  to  return  ;  and  the  minute  chronicler 
informs  us,  that  when  he  went  with  his  wife  to  church, 
to  hear  this  Divine  preach  to  his  long-neglected  flock, 
he  "  made  but  a  very  poor  and  short  excuse,  and  a  bad 
sermon."* 

The  Plague,  when  it  left  London,  visited,  with  its 
horrors,  many  other  parts  of  England.  It  is  curious  to 
find  that  the  Corporation  of  Norwich  gave  orders  to  the 
parish  clerks,  not  to  toll  for  the  dead  any  bell  but  one 
belonging  to  the  parish  in  which  the  person  died, 
because  it  had  become  a  practice  for  the  citizens  in  one 
parish  to  have  the  bells  tolled  for  deceased  friends  in 
another  parish,  so  that  all  the  church  steeples  were 
sometimes  ringing  out  a  knell  for  the  same  individual. 
As  in  London,  so  in  the  country,  the  ejected  clergy  f 
watched  for  opportunities  of  usefulness,  but  they  were 
often  thwarted  in  their  laudable  efforts.  Owen  Stock- 
ton— ejected  at  Colchester — when  he  saw  many,  "even 
the    shepherds    of  the    flock,    hastening   their    flight," 

*  Feb.  4,  1666.     Many   affecting  particulars   relative   to   the 
Plague  may  be  found  in  the  notes  of  this  prince  of  diarists. 
t  Blomefield's  "  Hist,  of  Norwich,"  I.  410. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  335 

offered,  if  the  magistrates  "  would  indulge  him  the 
liberty  of  a  public  church,  to  stay  and  preach,"  "  till 
either  God  should  take  him  away  by  death,  or  cause 
the  pestilence  to  cease."  The  magistrates  had  no 
power  to  set  aside  the  law,  and  the  privilege  asked 
being  denied,  the  Puritan  confessor,  from  the  study  of 
the  words  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  "  Hide  thyself  as  it 
were  for  a  little  moment  until  the  indignation  be  over- 
past," satisfied  himself  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  removing 
from  place  to  place,  in  time  of  peril,  and  hastened  with 
his  family  to  the  retired  village  of  Chattisham,  in 
Suffolk.* 

A  touching  story  is  told  of  a  clergyman  at  Eyam,  in 
Derbyshire.  A  box  of  cloth  was  sent  from  London  to 
a  tailor  in  the  village,  who,  soon  after  he  had  emptied 
the  package,  fell  sick,  and  died.  The  pestilence  pre- 
sently swept  away  all  in  his  house  except  one.  It 
spread  from  cottage  to  cottage,  and  a  grave-stone 
remains  to  tell  of  seven  persons  named  Hancock,  who 
died  within  eight  days.  As  the  churchyard  did  not 
suffice  for  the  burial  of  the  dead,  graves  were  dug  in 
the  fields  and  upon  the  hill-side,  where  corpses  were 
hastily  interred.  The  clergyman  was  Mr.  Mompesson, 
a  young  man  of  twenty-eight,  whose  wife,  alarmed  for 
the  safety  of  her  husband  and  their  two  children, 
besought  him  to  flee,  but  he  would  not  leave  his  flock. 
With  heroic  love,  whilst  seeking  his  safety,  she  exposed 
herself  to  imminent  danger,  and  consenting  to  the  re- 
moval of  the  children,  resolved  to  abide  in  the  parson- 
age, where  they  remained  for  seven  months.  In  con- 
junction with  the  Earl  of  Devonshire,  the  patron  of  the 
living,  the  Incumbent  arranged  that  all  communication 
with  neighbouring  places  should  be  cut  off,  that  no  one 

*  "  Life  of  Owen  Stockton,"  16S1,  p.  39. 


336  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

should  go  beyond  a  boundary  marked  by  stones,  where 
people  came  and  left  provisions,  and  where  the  buyer 
put  his  money  in  a  vessel  of  water.  Combining  singular 
prudence  with  ardent  zeal,  Mompesson  provided  for 
the  continuance  of  religious  services,  without  hazarding 
the  health  of  his  parishioners  by  bringing  them  into  a 
crowded  church,  and  wisely  performed  Divine  service 
in  the  open  air.  Amidst  the  romantic  scenery  of 
Cucklet  Dale,  by  the  side  of  a  running  brook,  with  a 
rock  for  his  pulpit,  and  with  craggy  hills  on  one  side, 
and  lofty  trees  on  the  other  for  the  walls  of  a  temple, 
he  assembled  his  flock,  and  was  wonderfully  preserved  ; 
but  just  as  the  Plague  began  to  decline,  his  noble  wife 
fell  a  victim  to  its  power.* 

Nor  let  Thomas  Stanley,  a  minister  who  had  been 
ejected  from  the  living  of  Eyam,  be  forgotten.  He 
could  not  preach  to  the  people  whom  he  loved  ;  but  by 
visitation,  advice,  and  prayer,  he  sought  to  promote 
their  moral  and  spiritual  interests.  Some  looked  with 
jealousy  upon  his  efforts,  and  endeavoured  to  persuade 
the  Earl  of  Devonshire  to  remove  him  from  the  place  ; 
but,  whoever  they  were,  the  Earl  was  his  friend,  declar- 
ing it  much  more  reasonable  that  the  whole  country 
should  testify  their  thankfulness  to  such  a  spiritual 
benefactor.  These  are  instances  of  activity.  There 
were  also  examples  of  endurance.  Samuel  Shaw, 
ejected  from  the  rectory  of  Long  Whatton,  in  Leices- 
tershire, retired  to  the  village  of  Coates,  near  Lough- 
borough, and  there  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  for 
the  support  of  his  family.     His  fields  were  ripe  for  the 

*  The  story  of  Mompesson  is  fully  told  in  "  Histories  of  Derby- 
shire." Most  of  what  is  known  has  been  collected  in  a  little  work 
on  the  "  History  of  Eyam,"  by  Mr.  Wood,  a  resident  in  the 
village. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  337 

sickle,  the  valleys  were  covered  with  corn,  and  the  good 
man  shared  in  Nature's  joy,  as  he  looked  upon  his 
quiet  homestead,  "  little  dreaming,"  as  he  tells  us,  "  of 
the  Plague,  which  was  almost  a  hundred  miles  off." 
Some  friends  from  London  came  down  to  see  him,  and 
brought  the  infection  ;  soon  the  Plague-spot  appeared, 
and  touched  one  after  another  of  his  household,  until 
all  were  smitten,  and  the  farm-cottage  became  a  pest- 
house.  The  master  of  the  dwelling  shut  himself  up  for 
three  months,  tending  the  sick  as  far  as  his  own  health 
permitted  ;  for  he  himself  suffered  from  the  fearful 
malady.  Two  of  his  children  died,  one  of  his  servants 
died,  two  of  his  friends  from  London  died  :  five  out  of 
ten  were  thus  cut  off.  Yet,  although  enfeebled  by 
sickness,  having  no  one  besides  himself  to  perform  the 
rites  of  sepulture,  he  turned  his  garden  into  a  grave- 
yard, and  with  his  own  hands  buried  the  dead.* 

Driven  from  London  by  the  Plague,  the  Lords  and 
Commons  held  their  sittings  in  the  Great  Hall  of 
Christ's  Church,  Oxford,  where  Charles  L  had  met  his 
mock  parhament.  The  subject  of  the  continued  exist- 
ence and  of  the  alarming  increase  of  Nonconformity 
again  came  upon  the  carpet.  Instead  of  disinterested 
exertions,  put  forth  by  ejected  ministers  in  a  Plague- 
stricken  country,  being  rewarded  by  commendation, 
jealousy  was  expressed  respecting  the  manifestations 
of  their  zeal.  It  was  odiously  represented  in  parlia- 
mentary circles,  that  Dissenters  in  many  places,  "  began 
to  preach  openly,  not  without  reflecting  on  the  sins  of 
the  Court,  and  on  the  ill-usage  that  they  themselves 
had  met  with."  j  Prejudices  were  increased  by  reports 
to  the  effect,  that  Conventiclers  in  Scotland  were  bold 

*  For  an  account  of  Stanley  and  of  Shaw,  see  Calamy. 
t  Burnet's  "  Own  Time,"  I.  224. 


338  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

and  mutinous,  and  that  they  were  supposed  to  have 
entered  into  treasonable  correspondence  with  Enghsh 
Presbyterians  ;  *  at  the  same  time,  perhaps,  circum- 
stances pertaining  to  a  new  conflict  with  Holland,  in 
which  this  country  was  then  engaged,  served  to  in- 
tensify these  mischievous  feelings. 

The  Dutch  war,  though  not  liked  by  the  King  or  his 
Chancellor,  found  favour  at  Court  with  the  Duke  of 
York's  party,  and  was  warmly  supported  by  Parlia- 
ment ;  besides  which,  an  Act  was  passed  for  attainting 
Englishmen  who  should  continue  to  reside  in  Holland, 
or  who  should  engage  in  the  Dutch  service.  Some  of 
the  fanatical  Sectaries,  it  was  alleged,  entered  that 
service,  and  were  intending  to  take  up  arms  against 
their  King  and  their  country  ;  moreover,  it  was  known 
that  this  war  against  the  United  Provinces  incurred 
unpopularity  even  with  moderate  Nonconformists. 
Perhaps  partly  influenced  by  these  considerations, 
Sheldon  felt  anxious  to  ascertain  the  numbers  and  the 
strength  of  the  disaffected — a  project  carried  out,  with 
results  appearing  at  a  later  period.  He  not  only  issued 
•orders,  that  Bishops  should  be  careful  what  persons 
they  received  into  the  ministry,  that  in  all  things  the 
canons  concerning  ordination  should  be  observed,  that 
all  pluralists  should  be  reported,  with  full  particulars 
respecting  their  pluralities,  that  it  should  be  certified  to 
the  Archbishop  where  lectures  were  set  up,  and  who 
were  the  lecturers,  and  how  they  were  "  affected  to  the 
Government  of  His  Majesty,  and  the  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church  of  England  : "  but  that  informa- 
tion also  should  be  returned  respecting  all  school- 
masters and  instructors  of  youth,  and  practisers  of 
physic,  and  that  the  Bishops  of  his  province  should 

*  Collier,  II.  S93. 


1665.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  339 

inform  him  what  Nonconformist  ministers  in  their 
dioceses  had  been  ejected,  what  was  their  profession  in 
life,  and  how  they  behaved  themselves  in  relation  to  the 
peace  and  quiet,  as  well  of  the  Church,  as  of  the  State ; 
and  also  whether  any  such  had  removed  from  one 
diocese  to  another.* 

Parliament  now  determined  to  deal  another  heavy 
blow  at  the  obstinacy  and  insolence  of  Dissent.  If 
there  were  in  England  people  disposed  to  conspire 
against  the  Government,  adequate  means  for  detecting 
such  persons  existed  :  but,  not  satisfied  with  laws 
Against  treason,  Parliament,  under  cover  of  putting  an 
end  to  plots,  passed  a  measure  affecting  men  against 
whom  no  reasonable  suspicion  whatever  could  be  enter- 
tained. The  Five  Mile  Act— the  measure  to  which  we 
now  refer — was  passed  in  the  month  of  October,  1665, 
and  was  entitled  "  An  Act  for  restraining  Nonconform- 
ists from  inhabiting  in  corporations."  It  complained 
of  persons  taking  upon  themselves  to  preach  to  unlaw- 
ful assemblies,  under  pretext  of  religion,  in  order  to 
instil  the  poisonous  principles  of  schism  and  rebellion 
into  the  hearts  of  His  Majesty's  subjects';  and  it  im- 
posed, more  stringently  than  ever,  the  oath  of  non- 
resistance  and  passive  obedience.  This  was  the  form 
of  the  oath  : — "  I  do  swear  that  it  is  not  lawful,  upon 
any  pretence  whatsoever,  to  take  arms  against  the 
King;  and. that  I  do  abhor  that  traitorous  position  of 
taking  arms  by  his  authority  against  his  person,  or 
against  those  that  are  commissioned  by  him,  in  pur- 
suance of  such  commissions  ;  and  that  I  will  not  at  any 
time  endeavour  any  alteration  of  Government,  either  in 
Church  or  State."  Failing  to  take  this  oath.  Noncon- 
formist ministers  v/ere  forbidden  after  the  24th  of 
*  July  7,  i66r.     \Yilkins,  IV.  582. 


340  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

March  following,  to  come,  except  as  passengers,  within 
five  miles  of  any  corporate  town  or  any  place  where, 
since  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Oblivion,  they  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  officiating.  A  payment  of  forty  pounds 
was  prescribed  as  the  penalty  for  offending  against  the 
Act,  and  those  who  refused  the  oath,  and  did  not  attend 
Divine  service  in  the  Established  Church,  incurred 
incapacity  for  exercising  even  the  functions  of  a  tutor. 
Any  two  county  magistrates  were  empowered,  upon 
oath  of  a  violation  of  this  law,  to  commit  the  trans- 
gressor to  prison  for  six  months.*  The  Act  of  Uni- 
formity had  banished  Nonconformist  ministers  from 
the  parish  pulpits,  the  Conventicle  Act  had  broken  up 
the  congregations  which  these  ministers  had  secretly 
gathered  since  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  1662,  and  now 
by  the  Five  Mile  Act,  these  persons  were  forced  into 
exile,  and  perhaps  reduced  to  starvation.! 

A  spirit  of  retaliation  may  be  traced  in  the  new 
enactment.  When  the  Presbyterian  visitors,  in  the 
year  1646,  took  possession  of  the  University,  and  the 
students  proved  rebellious,  a  military  proclamation 
threatened  that  the  refractory  who  tarried  witJiin  five 
miles  of  the  city,  should  be  treated  as  spies.f  And 
Cromwell  had,  by  his  ordinance  in  1655,  forbidden 
ejected  ministers  to  attempt  the  business  of  education, 
or  to  officiate  in  their  religious  calling.  Sheldon,  sitting 
from  day  to  day  in  the  Hall  of  Christ  Church,  as  the 
Bill  was  read  three  times,  might  experience  a  gratified 

*  17  Car.  II.  c.  2. 

t  An  anonymous  correspondent  writes,  on  November  24,  1665 
("  State  Papers  "),  to  Lord  Arlington,  that  "  all  are  amazed  at  the 
late  Act  against  Nonconformity,  judging  it  against  the  law  of 
nature,  and  therefore  void,  but  that  the  Presbyterians  will  defeat 
its  design,  for  some  of  the  chief  incline  to  take  the  oath." 

%  See  Vol.  I.  of  this  History. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOH.  341 

resentment  as  he  called  to  mind  the  former  five  mile 
proclamation,  and  as  he  thought  of  his  own  expulsion 
from  the  Wardenship  of  All  Souls' ;  others  might  in- 
dulge in  similar  reminiscences  and  feelings.*  But  the 
revenge  proceeded  far  beyond  the  provocation.  What 
was  done  by  the  Oxford  visitors,  and  those  who  sup- 
ported them,  was  done  in  a  time  of  war,  or  immediately 
afterwards.  What  was  done  by  the  Oxford  Parlia- 
ment was  done  in  a  time  of  peace.  Moreover,  Crom- 
well, in  his  declaration,  had  prescribed  no  penalty  for 
disobedience,  and  had  promised  to  deal  leniently  with 
all  persons  who  were  well-disposed  towards  his  govern- 
ment ;  but  now,  men  were  required  to  swear  to  an 
abstract  proposition  which  destroyed  the  last  defence 
of  freedom,  or  to  be  mulcted  in  a  large  penalty,  with 
the  superadded  hardship  of  a  banishment  from  home. 

The  Bill  met  with  a  faint  opposition  in  the  Lower 
House  ;  in  the  Upper,  not  only  the  Lords  Wharton 
and  Ashley,  the  first  a  Nonconformist,  it  will  be 
remembered,  the  latter  supposed  to  be  inclined  that 
way,  but  also  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  at  that  time 
Lord  Treasurer,  spoke  distinctly  against  it.  The  latter 
declared  that  no  honest  man  could  take  such  an  oath, 
he  could  not  do  it  himself,  for  however  firm  might  be 
his  attachment  to  the  Church,  as  things  were  managed, 
he  did  not  know  but  that  he  might  himself  discover 
reasons  for  seeking  some  change  in  its  constitution.! 
Dr.  Earle,  then  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  also  disapproved  of 
this  assault  upon  liberty.  The  Primate  Sheldon,  and 
the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Seth  Ward,  were  zealous  in 
their  support  of  it  ;    at  the  same  time  all  who  secretly 

*  He  was  present  on  each  occasion  of  the  Bill  being  read,  Oct. 
26th,  27th,  and  30th.     See  "  Lords'  Journals." 
t  Burnet,  I.  224. 


342  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [CiiAr.  IX. 

favoured  Roman  Catholicism  regarded  it  with  satisfac- 
tion,* it  being  in  harmony  with  their  policy,  to  reduce 
the  Sectaries  to  such  a  state,  as  that  they  should  be 
forced  to  accept  toleration  from  His  Majesty  on  his 
own  terms.  Nearly  half  the  House  of  Commons  now 
became  so  infatuated  as  to  support  another  Bill, 
founded  upon  the  opposition  made  by  members  of  the 
Upper  House,  and  intended  to  impose  the  obnoxious 
oath  upon  Englishmen  at  large.f  This  Bill,  however, 
was  rejected  by  the  votes  of  three  members,  "  who  had 
the  merit  of  saving  their  country  from  the  greatest 
ignominy  which  could  have  befallen  it,  that  of  riveting 
as  well  as  forging  its  own  chains.''^ 

A  difference  of  opinion  arose  amongst  Nonconform- 
ists respecting  the  course  to  be  pursued  in  relation  to 
the  Five  Mile  Act.  Some  were  willing  to  take  the 
oath  in  a  qualified  sense.  Bridgeman,  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,§  and  other  Judges  ex- 
plained the  words  in  the  oath,  "  I  will  not  at  any  time 
endeavour  any  alteration  of  Government,  either  in 
Church  or  State,"  to  mean  an  luilaivfiil  endeavour. 
With  this  qualification  afforded  by  high  legal  authorities, 
some  distinguished  Nonconformists  submitted  to  the 
statute.  About  twenty  ministers  in  the  City  of  London, 
including    Bates,   took   the    oath  ;    and  about   twelve 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  3. 

t  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  328. 

%  Ralph's  "  Hist,  of  England."  "  The  providence  by  which  it 
was  thrown  out  was  very  remarkable,  for  Mr.  Peregrine  Bertie, 
being  newly  chosen,  was  that  morning  introduced  into  the  house 
by  his  brother,  the  now  Earl  of  Lindsey,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Osborne,  now  Lord  Treasurer,  who  all  three  gave  their  votes 
against  the  Bill,  and  the  numbers  were  so  even  upon  that  division 
that  their  three  voices  carried  the  question  against  it."  (Locke, 
"  Letters  from  a  Person  of  Quality.") 

§  He  was  not  made  Lord  Keeper  until  1667. 


1665.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  343 

in  Devonshire,  including  Howe.  Bates  argued,  that 
the  word  endeavo2tr  might  be  construed  in  a  quaU- 
fied  sense,  according  to  the  preface  of  the  Act,  its 
congruity  with  other  laws,  the  testimony  of  members  of 
Parliament,  and  the  concurrent  opinion  of  the  Judges. 
When  he,  with  others,  presented  himself  before  their 
Lordships,  Bridgeman  courteously  observed,  "  Gentle- 
men, I  perceive  you  are  come  to  take  the  oath.  I  am 
glad  of  it.  The  intent  of  it  is  to  distinguish  between 
the  King's  good  subjects,  and  those  who  are  mentioned 
in  the  Act,  and  to  prevent  seditious  and  tumultuous 
endeavours  to  alter  the  Government."  One  of  the 
ministers,  Mr.  Clark,  replied,  "  In  this  sense  we  take 
it ; "  upon  which  Keeling,  the  same  who  introduced  the 
Bill  of  Uniformity,  said  in  a  hasty  tone,  "  Will  you  take 
the  oath  as  the  Parliament  has  appointed  it } "  Bates 
replied,  "  My  Lord,  we  are  come  hither  to  attest  our 
loyalty,  and  to  declare,  we  will  not  seditiously  en- 
deavour to  alter  the  Government."  When  the  oath 
had  been  administered.  Keeling  proceeded  with  great 
vehemence  to  interpret  what  they  had  done  as  involving 
the  renunciation  of  the  Covenant,  "that  damnable 
oath,"  as  he  politely  termed  it,  "  which  sticks  between 
the  teeth  of  so  many."  He  hoped,  as  there  was  one 
King  and  one  faith,  so  there  would  be  one  Government, 
and  that  if  these  ministers  did  not  now  conform,  what 
they  had  just  done  would  be  considered  as  meant  "  to 
save  a  stake."*  The  ministers  retired  with  sadness, 
without  noticing  the  insult.  A  certain  interpretation 
being  admitted  by  the  Court,  there  could  be  no  charge 
of  dishonest  evasion  against  those  who,  in  such  a  way, 
publicly  declared  their  construction  of  the  words.     Yet 

*  This  account  is  given   by  Bates   himself.     (Baxter's  "  Life 
and  Times,"  III.  14.) 


344  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

they  really  substituted  another  declaration  for  that 
which  was  required  by  the  law,  and  those  who  allowed 
the  substitution  actually  set  the  law  aside.  The  law 
was  no  doubt  unjust,  and  to  correct  the  injustice  an 
unnatural  sense  was  put  upon  its  terms.  But  notwith- 
standing this  kind  of  sophistry,  so  often  practised  even 
by  people  who  are  straightforward  in  other  ways,  the 
pledge  of  obedience  which  the  Nonconformists  gave, 
sufficed  to  show  the  cruelty  of  treating  such  men  as  if 
they  had  been  rebels.* 

The  greater  number  of  Nonconformists  regarded  the 
subject  in  a  different  light  from  that  in  which  it  was 
viewed  by  Bates  and  Howe,  and  not  being  able,  with 
their  convictions,  to  acquiesce  in  a  forced  construction 
of  the  formulary,  they  refused  to  adopt  it,  whilst  they 
also  still  resolved  to  preach  the  Gospel.  The  essence 
of  the  whole  question  as  to  the  explanation  of  formu- 
laries was  involved  in  the  controversy  raised  by  the 
Five  Mile  Act ;  and  was  a  subject  of  casuistry  too 
tempting  for  Richard  Baxter  not  to  touch,  even  if 
practical  considerations  and  personal  interests  had  not 
prompted  him  to  engage  in  the  inquiry.  Several  closely 
printed  folio  pages  are  devoted  by  him  to  an  examina- 
tion of  the  arguments  on  both  sides,  the  result  of  his 
cogitations  being  that  he  himself  records  a  resolution, 
not  to  take  the  oath  at  all.  He  looked  upon  the 
whole  proceeding  as  unrighteous,  and  pronounced  this 
statute  the  means  of  making  Nonconformists  appear 
to  posterity  as  if  they  were  disloyal.  He  was  moved  to 
draw  up  a  defence  on  their  behalf,  but,  on  reading  it 
to  some  of  his  friends,  they  persuaded  him  to  throw 
it  aside,  and  submit  in  silence.     "  The  wise  statesmen," 

*  For  those  who  took  the  oath  see  Baxter,  III.  13.  See  also 
Calamy's  "Abridgment,"  note  312. 


16G5.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  345 

adds  the  simple-hearted  theologian,  and  the  remark 
involves  a  just  satire  on  the  way  in  which  the  world 
often  judges,  "  laughed  at  me,  for  thinking  that  reason 
would  be  regarded  by  such  men  as  we  had  to  do  with, 
and  would  not  exasperate  them  the  more."* 

Those  who  declined  to  take  the  oath  were  either 
subject  to  fine,  or  had  to  dwell  in  such  places  only  as 
were  allowed  by  the  Act,  such  compulsory  residence,  in 
a  number  of  cases,  rendering  necessary  an  expensive 
and  inconvenient  removal.  Baxter  and  Owen,  who 
were  living  in  London,  repaired,  the  one  to  Acton,  the 
other  to  Ealing.  Many  in  the  Northern  part  of  the 
country  went  to  Manchester,  Bolton,  Sheffield,  and 
Mansfield,  which  were  called  "  Cities  of  Refuge,"  inas- 
much as  they  were,  at  that  time,  towns  without  cor- 
porations. Oliver  Heywood  left  Coley,  not  to  go  so 
far  as  many  did,  for  he  only  crossed  the  hills  to 
Denton,  "  Yet  it  was  the  weariest,  most  tedious  journey," 
he  remarks,  "  I  have  had  that  way,  which  I  have  gone 
many  hundred  times,  but  scarce  ever  with  so  sad  a 
heart,  in  so  sharp  a  storm  of  weather."t  Philip  Henry 
refused  to  take  the  oath,  and  his  case  proved  one  of 
peculiar  hardship,  for  the  pleasant  homestead  of  Broad 
Oak,  where  he  lived,  was  but  four  reputed  miles  from 
Worthenbury,  where  he  had  preached,  although  upon 
measurement  the  distance  turned  out  to  be  above  five 
miles.  Reputed  miles  were,  by  the  authorities,  counted 
instead  of  measured  miles,  consequently  the  good  man 
was  compelled  to  leave  his  family  for  a  time,  "  and  to 
sojourn  among  his  friends,  to  whom  he  endeavoured, 
wherever  he  came,  to  impart  some  spiritual  gift."| 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  13. 
t  Hunter's  "  Life  of  Heywood,"  173. 
i  "  Life  of  Philip  Henry,"  108. 


346  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

Several  ministers  in  the  Northern  Counties  escaped 
the  penalties  of  the  Conventicle  and  Five  Mile  Acts. 
This  anomaly  may  be  accounted  for,  in  part,  by  remem- 
bering the  scanty  population  in  those  districts,  and  the 
impossibility,  under  any  circumstances,  of  maintaining 
such  a  vigilant  oversight  as  to  detect  all  instances  of 
disobedience.  But  the  comparative  exemption  of  some 
neighbourhoods  in  the  North,  is  also  in  part  to  be 
attributed  to  the  influence  of  three  noblemen  who 
were  Lord-Lieutenants,  respectively,  of  the  Counties  of 
York,  of  Lancaster,  and  of  Derby.  The  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant of  Yorkshire  was  no  other  than  the  notorious 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  had  married  Lord  Fairfax's 
daughter.  Vicious  and  worthless  as  the  Duke  was,  he 
had  strong  opinions  in  favour  of  toleration,  if  for  no 
higher  reason,  at  least  from  dislike  to  Clarendon's 
policy,  and  perhaps,  too,  from  the  influence  of  family 
connections.*  This  erratic  Peer  had  engaged  a  Non- 
conformist minister  as  his  chaplain,  and  when  his 
mother-in-law,  Lady  Fairfax,  died,  he  endeavoured  to 
arrange  for  the  funeral  sermon  being  publicly  preached 
by  this  gentleman.f  The  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Lanca- 
shire was  the  Earl  of  Derby ;  and  of  him,  Newcome, 
the  Presbyterian  minister  of  Manchester,  tells  several 

*  For  his  character  by  Burnet  see  "  Hist,  of  his  Own  Time," 
I.  lOO. 

t  The  following  story  is  given  in  a  letter  written  just  after  the 
Duke's  duel  with  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury.  If  the  story  be  true, 
it  is  one  of  evanescent  religious  impression,  or  of  unparalleled 
hypocrisy  : — "  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  is  become  a  most 
eminent  convert  from  all  the  vanities  he  hath  been  reported  to 
have  been  addicted  to  ;  hath  had  a  solemn  day  of  prayer  for  the 
completing  and  confirming  the  great  work  upon  him.  Dr.  Owen, 
and  others  of  the  like  persuasion  (Independents  j,  were  the  carriers 
on  of  the  work.  He  is  said  to  keep  correspondence  with  the  chief 
of  those  parties.  He  grows  more  and  more  in  favour  and  power." 
(Hunter's  "  Life  of  Heywood,"  198.) 


1C66.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  347- 

Stories  indicative  of  his  liberality.  The  Rector  of 
Walton,  a  Heywood  of  Heywood,  on  one  occasion 
asked  the  Earl  to  put  down  a  Conventicle  at  Toxteth 
Park.  "  What  did  the  people  do  there  ? "  he  asked. 
"  Preach  and  pray,"  was  the  answer.  "If  that  be  all," 
replied  the  Earl,  "  why  should  they  be  restrained,  will 
you  neither  preach  nor  pray  yourselves,  nor  suffer 
others  to  preach  and  pray .''  "  The  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
the  County  of  Derby  was  the  Earl  of  Devonshire,  and 
he  also  disliked  the  persecuting  measures. 

Where  no  leniency  was  intended,  the  law,  in  some 
cases,  failed  in  its  effect.  This  called  forth  the  lamen- 
tation of  certain  zealots.  "  I  am  bound  to  say,"  remarks 
one  of  this  class,  "  nothing  was  prosecuted  at  the  last 
quarter  sessions  against  the  Quakers,  nor  the  rest  of 
that  diabolical  rabble,  although  several  bills  of  indict- 
ment have  been  framed  and  presented  at  sessions 
against  that  viperous  brood,  yet  by  reason  most  of  the 
grand  jury  are  fanatics,  the  bills  were  not  found,  and 
that  they  have  several  places  of  meeting  will  manifestly 
appear.  .  .  .  Thehonest  souls,  especially  Church  officers 
and  others,  are  much  afflicted  to  be  reviled  and  affronted 
in  the  performance  of  their  offices  by  the  bold  faction. 
.  .  .  The  fanatics  abound  in  good  horses,  and  seem 
to  be  ready  for  mischief ;  but  if  half  a  score  such  as 
might  be  named  were  secured  in  our  castles,  and 
made  to  give  good  security  for  their  conformity  to 
the  King's  Majesty  and  the  Church,  doubtless  it  would 
abate  their  pride,  and,  it  may  be,  confound  their 
devices."  * 

One  great  reason  assigned  for  the  two  oppressive 
Acts  just  described,  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  disaffec- 
tion of  Nonconformists,  and,  particularly  in  reference 
*  February  28th,  "  Cal.  Dom.,"  1665-66,  pref.  xxx. 


348  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

to  the  Five  Mile  Act,  the  allegation  that  they  were  im- 
plicated in  certain  designs  of  invasion  contemplated  by 
the  Dutch  was  strongly  urged.  In  this,  as  in  former 
cases,  we  have  no  means  of  testing  the  information 
which  abounds  in  letters  written  at  the  time  by  enemies 
of  the  accused.  Many  of  the  rumours  are  utterly  in- 
credible ;  as  for  example  that  it  was  intended  to  restore 
Richard  Cromwell,  that  it  would  be  easy  to  secure  in 
some  parts  the  gentry  on  his  side,  that  the  watchword 
was  to  be  "  Tumble  down  Dick,  they  will  declare  for  a 
Commonwealth,"  and  that  the  Earl  of  Derby  favoured 
the  disaffected  party.  We  may  be  confident,  too,  from 
what  we  know  of  their  characters,  that  the  principal 
Nonconformist  ministers  frowned  upon  all  political 
plots.  Yet  no  one  who  has  perused  the  State  Papers 
can  deny,  that  at  the  time  now  under  review,  enough 
was  reported  at  head-quarters  to  make  the  Government 
very  uncomfortable.* 

France  just  then  was  looking  to  England  for  elements 
of  disturbance  which  might  favour  its  designs  upon  our 
country  in  aid  of  Holland,  Louis  XIV.  being  on  terms 
of  friendship  with  the  Dutch  ;  and  we  find  the  Grand 
Monarque,  in  a  letter  to  the  States,  proposing  to  give 
occupation  to  Charles  at  home  by  exciting  the  Presby- 
terians and  Catholics  to  revolt.f  In  the  summer  of 
1665,  the  Dutch,  encouraged  by  promises  of  assistance 
from  the  French,  had  been  seen  cruising  around  our 
coasts,  and  were  defeated  by  the  English  fleet ;  in  1666 
a  more  important  action  occurred  on  the  5th  of  June, 

*  In  the  Record  Office — besides  many  otlier  papers  under  the 
year  1665  respecting  plots  in  Yorkshire — there  is  a  long  one  ex- 
tending to  eighteen  pages,  full  of  minute  particulars  on  the 
subject,  dated  December  24th,  entitled  "  Information  given  to 
Mr.  Sheriff." 

t  James'  "  Life  of  Louis  XIV.,"  II.  143. 


166G.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  349. 

when  our  countrymen  burnt  or  disabled  between  twenty 
and  thirty  of  the  ninety  ships  belonging  to  the  enemy  ; 
and  another  occurred  on  the  25th  of  July,  which  ended, 
after  three  days'  fighting,  in  the  defeat  of  the  Dutch,* 
It  was  to  one  of  the  engagements  at  that  period  that 
Dryden  refers  in  his  picturesque  description :  "  The 
noise  of  the  cannon  from  both  navies  reached  our  ears 
about  the  city,  so  that  all  men  being  alarmed  with  it 
and  in  dreadful  suspense  of  the  event,  which  we  knew 
was  then  deciding,  every  one  went  following  the  sound 
as  his  fancy  led  him  ;  and  leaving  the  town  almost 
empty,  some  took  towards  the  park,  some  cross  the 
river,  others  down  it — all  seeking  the  noise  in  the  depth 
of  the  silence."!  Such  imminent  peril  alarmed  the 
whole  country,  as  well  as  London  ;  and  when,  for  a 
time,  the  worst  was  over,  apprehension  remained  of 
further  attacks  from  the  great  naval  power  of  Holland, 
and  some  persons  of  Republican  sentiments  were 
hoping  that  their  own  objects  would  be  promoted  by 
the  war.  English  refugees  in  the  United  Provinces 
were  corresponding  with  their  friends  at  home  ;  and 
much,  it  would  appear,  was  said  and  done  to  nourish 
Republican  hopes  on  English  soil.  A  considerable 
amount  of  sympathy  with  the  Dutch  existed  in  the 
West  of  England  ;  and,  in  consequence  of  this  sym- 
pathy and  correspondence,  the  Government  took 
measures  to  prevent  letters  passing  between  the  two 
countries.  Aphara  Behn,  an  eccentric  and  notorious 
poetess  and  novelist,  was  employed  upon  a  semi-official 
mission  to  Antwerp,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  in- 

*  "State  Papers,  Cal."  1665-66,  pref.  xix.-xxv.  Historians 
have  given  inaccurate  or  incomplete  accounts  of  these  naval 
battles.  Ample  materials  for  a  full  description  are  afforded  in 
these  documents. 

t  "  Essay  on  Dramatic  Poesie." 


350  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

formation  from  the  English  fugitives  respecting  any 
poHtical  schemes  which  they  might  have  in  hand.* 

Soon  after  the  Plague  had  ceased,  another  calamity 
occurred  which  requires  attention. 

The  Fire  of  London  broke  out  on  the  ist  of  Septem- 
ber, in  a  baker's  shop  in  Pudding  Lane.  It  rushed 
down  Fish  Street  Hill,  and  soon  enveloped  the  dwell- 
ings by  London  Bridge  and  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames.  Fanned  by  the  winds,  the  conflagration 
swept  westward  and  northward.  It  passed  in  leaps 
from  house  to  house,  and  flowed  in  streams  from  street 
to  street.  Torrents  of  flame  coming  over  Cornhill  met 
others  dashing  up  from  Walbrook  and  Bucklersbury. 
Along  Cheapside,  Ludgate.  the  Strand,  the  furious 
element  advanced,  curling  round  the  edge  of  Smithfield, 
before  its  frightful  circuit  was  complete.  Thatched  roofs, 
timber  walls,  cellars  of  oil,  and  warehouses  filled  with 
inflammable  material  fed  the  tremendous  pyre.  Lead, 
iron,  glass,  were  melted,  water  in  cisterns  was  boiled, 
adding  vapour  to  smoke,  stones  were  calcined,  and  the 
ground  became  so  hot  that  people  walking  over  it 
burnt  their  shoes.  The  libraries  of  St.  Paul's,  and  Sion 
College,  with  large  collections  of  books  and  papers,  were 
consumed,  half-burnt  leaves  fell  by  Baxter's  house  at 
Acton,  and  were  blown  even  as  far  as  Windsor.  Public 
buildings  shone  like  palaces  of  fine  gold  or  burnished 
brass,  and  glowed  like  coals  in  a  furnace,  heated  seven 
times  hotter  than  usual.  Blazing  fragments  were  swept, 
like  flakes  in  a  snow  storm,  over  the  City,  whilst  the 
dense  conflagration  underneath  resembled  a  bow — "a 
bow  which  had  God's  arrow  in  it  with  a  flaming  point." 
The  cloud  of  smoke  was  so  great  that  travellers  at 
noon-day  rode  six  miles  under  its  shadow.  At  night 
*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.  Cal.,"  1666-67,  pref.  xxvii. 


1CG6.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  351 

the  moon  shone  from  a  crhTison  sky.  Young  Taswcll, 
a  Westminster  boy,  stood  on  Westminster  Bridge,  with 
his  little  pocket  edition  of  "  Terence "  in  his  hand, 
which  he  could  see  to  read  plainly  by  the  light  of  the 
burning  City.*  People  were  distracted.  Everybody 
endeavoured  to  remove  what  he  could,  all  sorts  of 
things  being  conveyed  away  in  carts  and  waggons, 
barges  and  wherries.  Poor  people  near  the  bridges 
stayed  in  their  houses  so  long  that  the  fire  touched 
them,  and  then  they  ran  into  boats,  or  clambered  from 
one  pair  of  stairs,  by  the  waterside,  to  another.  Pigeons 
loath  to  leave  their  cots,  hovered  about  windows  and 
balconies,  until  they  scorched  their  wings,  and  fell. 
Churches  were  filled  with  furniture  and  articles  of  all 
kinds.  Holes  were  dug  in  gardens  to  receive  casks  and 
bottles  of  wine,  boxes  of  documents,  and  other  treasures. 
The  sick  were  carried  in  litters  to  places  of  safety,  and 
multitudes  encamped  in  the  fields  beyond  Finsbury,  in 
the  village  of  Islington,  and  on  the  slopes  of  Highgate. 
Such  was  the  eagerness  to  obtain  the  means  of  remov- 
ing goods,  that  £a,  a  load  for  a  carter,  or  los.  a  day  for 
a  porter,  was  counted  poor  pay.  At  the  Temple, 
neither  boat,  barge,  coach,  nor  cart,  could  be  had  for 
love  or  money  ;  all  the  streets  were  crowded  with 
appropriated  vehicles  of  various  kinds. 

The  constables  of  the  respective  parishes  were  re- 
quired to  attend  at  Temple  Bar,  ClifTbrd's  Inn  Gardens, 
Fetter  Lane,  Shoe  Lane,  and  Bow  Lane,  with  100  men 
each  ;  at  every  post  were  stationed  130  foot  soldiers, 
with  a  good  officer,  and  three  gentlemen,  empowered 

*  "Autobiography  of  William  Taswell,  D.D."  "Camden  Mis- 
cellany," Vol.  II.  A  bridge  at  Westminster,  extending  across 
the  river,  was  not  erected  until  the  year  1738— opened  1750.  By 
Westminster  Bridge  is  here  meant  either  a  landing  pier  or  a 
bridge  over  a  creek. 


352  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [CiiAr.  IX. 

to  reward  the  diligent,  by  giving  them  one  shilling 
apiece,  whilst  five  pounds,  in  bread,  cheese,  and  beer, 
were  allowed  to  every  party.  The  King  and  the  Duke 
of  York  were  bold  and  persevering  in  their  endeavours 
to  extinguish  the  flames,  ordering  the  use  of  great 
hooks,  kept  in  churches  and  chapels,  for  pulling  down 
houses, — the  only  means  of  stopping  the  fire  being  to 
cut  off  the  fuel.  The  militia  were  called  to  aid  these 
efforts  and  to  prevent  disturbance.  They  marched  out 
of  Hertfordshire,  and  other  counties,  with  food  for 
forty-eight  hours,  and  with  carts  full  of  pickaxes,  ropes, 
and  buckets.  These  troops  encamped  at  Kingsland, 
near  Bishopsgate.  Markets  were  held  in  Bishopsgate 
Street,  upon  Tower  Hill,  in  Leadenhall  Street,  and  in 
Smithfield.  Bread  and  cheese  were  supplied  to  the 
famishing,  and  means  were  adopted  to  stimulate 
charity  towards  the  homeless  poor.  Multitudes  having 
taken  refuge  in  the  houses  and  fields  about  Islington, 
the  King  requested  that  strict  watch  might  be  kept  in 
all  the  ways  within  the  limits  of  the  town  and  parish, 
and  charitable  and  Christian  reception,  with  lodging 
and  entertainment,  given  to  strangers.  He  further 
ordered,  that  bread  should  be  brought  both  to  the  new 
and  old  markets ;  that  all  churches,  chapels,  schools, 
and  public  buildings,  should  be  open  to  receive  the 
property  of  such  as  were  burnt  out  of  house  and  home ; 
and  that  other  towns  should  receive  sufferers  who  fled 
to  them  for  refuge,  and  permit  them  to  exercise  their 
callings,  promise  being  given  that  they  should  after- 
wards be  no  burthen. 

Three  hundred  and  seventy-three  acres  within  the 
walls,  and  seventy-three  acres  three  roods  without  the 
walls,  were  left  covered  with  ruins  from  the  Tower  to 
the  Temple,  from  the  North-east  gate  of  the  City  wall 


16G6.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  353 

to  Holborn  Bridge.  Besides  Guildhall,  and  other  public 
edifices,  eighty-nine  parish  churches,  and  thirteen  thou- 
sand two  hundred  dwellings  were  destroyed.  The  loss 
of  property  was  estimated  at  eleven  millions  sterling.* 
The  miseries  of  the  fire  did  not  end  when  it  was  ex- 
tinguished. In  addition  to  losses  which  arose  from  the 
destruction  of  property, — manufacturers  at  Coventry, 
for  example,  being  greatly  injured  by  the  burning  of 
goods  which  they  had  sent  to  London  for  sale, — and 
to  other  evils  of  various  kinds  incident  after  such  a 
visitation,  there  followed  lamentable  consequences  of 
a  peculiar  nature. 

This  visitation,  as  might  be  expected,  was  construed 
into  a  Divine  judgment,  different  parties  of  course  point- 
ing at  the  iniquities  of  their  opponents  as  the  cause  of 
the  fiery  overthrow.  Fanatics  believed  that  it  was  the 
vengeance  of  Heaven  against  English  barbarity  in 
burning  the  Islands  of  Vlie  and  Schelling,  and  against 
national  sins  in  general,  A  Quaker,  near  Windsor, 
was  reported  to  have  heard  a  miraculous  voice  saying, 
that  "  they  have  had  the  pestilence,  and  fire,  and  other 
calamities,  and  yet  are  not  amended  ;  but  a  worse  plague 
has  yet  to  come  on  them  and  the  nation."  "They 
clearly  intimate  in  their  letters,"  it  was  said  of  the  same 
sect,  "  no  sorrow  for  the  late  burning  down  so  many 
steeple-houses  (as  they  call  them)  in  all  the  City."t 

Yet  human  agency  of  some  kind  was,  of  course, 
admitted  to  be  at  the  bottom.  The  Republicans,  the 
Dutch,  and  the  French  were  suspected  ;  the  opinion 
most  prevalent  being  that   the  Papists  were  authors 

*  Compiled  from  Strype's  "Stow,"  Pepys,  Evelyn,  Baxter, 
"  Harl.  Misc.,"  VII.,  "  State  Papers,"  1666-67  (see  "  Calendar"), 
and  "  Notes  and  Queries." 

t  "State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,  Cal."  1666-67,  P^f- 
xii.,  xix. 

VOL.    III.  2    A 


354  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

of  the  mischief.  This  idea  extensively  prevailed.  Pro- 
bably it  helped  to  induce  the  House  of  Commons  first 
to  present  a  petition  to  His  Majesty  asking  for  the 
banishment  of  priests  and  Jesuits,  for  the  enforcement 
of  the  laws  against  them,  and  all  other  Roman  Catholics, 
and  for  disarming  everybody  who  refused  the  Oaths  of 
Allegiance  and  Supremacy;  and  secondly,  to  resolve 
that  all  the  members  of  the  House  should  receive  the 
Lord's  Supper,  under  penalty  of  imprisonment  for 
refusal.*  Certainly,  upon  the  return  of  Gunpowder 
Plot  Day,  the  inculpation  of  the  Papists  kindled  anew 
the  eloquence  of  the  clergy,  and  strengthened  the  stock 
argument  that  the  "  Mother  of  Abominations"  remained 
unchanged.  Yet  the  evidence  adduced  to  establish  the 
guilt  of  the  accused  was  utterly  unsatisfactory.  The 
only  person  convicted  was  a  Frenchman,  and  his  con- 
viction rested  on  his  own  assertion  that  he  had  fired 
the  City,  an  assertion  which  must  have  proceeded  from 
a  morbid  love  of  notoriety,  or  from  some  other  un- 
accountable freak,  for  the  fellow,  at  the  gallow.s,  just 
before  being  turned  off,  acknowledged  that  what  he 
had  said  was  altogether  a  lie.  No  doubt,  the  con- 
clusion reached  by  the  Government  is  correct,  "  That, 
notwithstanding  that  many  examinations  have  been 
taken,  with  great  care,  by  the  Lords  of  the  Council  and 
His  Majesty's  Ministers,  yet  nothing  hath  been  yet 
found  to  argue  it  to  have  been  other  than  the  hand  of 
God  upon  us,  a  great  wind,  and  the  season  so  very 
dry."  t 

Baxter,  speaking  of  the  state  of  London  just  before 
the  fire,  observes,  that  in  the  larger  parishes,  for 
example,    St.    Martin's,    St.    Giles'    Cripplegate,    and 

*  "  Commons'  Journal,"  October  26,  1666. 
t  "  State  Papers,  Cal."  1666-67,  pref.  xiii. 


1666.J         THE   CHURCH  OF   THE  RESTORATIOX.  355 

Stepney,  there  were  60,000  inhabitants  each ;  that  in 
others,  as  in  St.  Giles'  in-the-Fields  and  St.  Sepulchre's, 
there  were  about  30,000,  in  others  about  20,000.  For 
these  parishes  the  churches  afiforded  insufficient  accom- 
modation, indeed,  the  fourth  part  of  the  people  would 
not  have  found  room  in  them  had  such  a  proportion 
been  disposed  to  attend  public  worship.  He  speaks  of 
a  sixth  or  a  tenth,  as  the  proportion  for  which  space  in 
the  parochial  edifices  was  available.*  The  fire,  by  de- 
stroying so  many  buildings,  deprived  very  many  people 
of  instruction  and  worship  in  the  Establishment,  and 
little  was  done  immediately  towards  repairing  the  evil. 
Houses  were  restored,  but  churches  were  neglected. 
Burnet  relates,  that  in  1669,  "vv^hen  the  City  was  pretty 
well  rebuilt,  they  began  to  take  care  of  the  churches, 
which  had  lain  in  ashes  some  years ; "  t  and  Baxter, 
writing  in  the  year  1675,  affirms  that  few  of  the  churches 
burnt  in  the  fire  had  been  re-edified. | 

The  Nonconformists  exerted  them.selves  in  this  emer- 
gency.§  The  parish  Incumbents  having  left  London 
for  want  of  incomes  and  of  dwelling-places,  the  ejected 
ministers  came  forward  to  occupy  the  deserted  fields 
of  labour,  and  resolved,  that  amidst  the  ruins  they 
would  preach  until  they  were  imprisoned.  Dr.  Manton 
opened  rooms  in  Covent  Garden,  and  there  gathered  a 
congregation.  Dr.  Jacomb,  for  that  purpose,  used  an 
apartment  in  the  house  of  the  Countess  of  Exeter. 
Dr.  Annesley,  Messrs.  Vincent,  Doolittle,  and  Franklin, 
and  other  Presbyterians,  either  occupied  buildings,  with 
pulpits,  seats,  and  galleries,  hastily  erected,  to  supply 

*  "Life  and  Times,"  II.  396  ;  III.  165. 
t  "  Hist,  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  270. 
X  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  162. 
§  Ibid.,  III.  19. 


3S6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

the  deficiency,  "  churches  of  boards,"  called  "  taber- 
nacles," *  or  large  rooms  fitted  up  in  some  extempore 
fashion  for  a  like  purpose.  What  had  been  before  done 
covertly  was  now  done  openly  :  and  the  Independents, 
allowing  for  their  numbers,  were  not  behind  the  Pres- 
byterians in  activity.  Owen,  Goodwin,  Nye,  Brooke, 
Caryl,  and  Griffiths,  to  mention  no  more,  publicly 
engaged  in  religious  ministrations  wherever  they  were 
able,  at  a  time  when  the  parish  churches  were  lying  in 
ruins. 

Scarcely  had  the  ashes  grown  cold  when  tidings 
came  of  a  religious  rising  north  of  the  Tweed.  A  Pro- 
clamation was  issued  at  Edinburgh  on  the  nth  of 
October,  1666,  enforcing  the  laws  against  Papists  and 
against  Protestant  Nonconformists,  and  requiring  that 
masters,  who  were  all  held  responsible  for  their  families, 
and  that  landlords,  who  were  all  made  accountable  for 
their  tenants,  should  abstain  from  repairing  to  Con- 
venticles, and  should  attend  the  Established  Church. 
Sir  James  Turner  was  despatched  to  execute  the  man- 
date, and  he  accomplished  its  execution  with  a  severity 
which  provoked  most  violent  opposition.  Declaring 
for  liberty  of  conscience,  and  also  for  what  was  perhaps 
still  more  popular,  freedom  from  taxation,  the  insur- 
gents, although  armed,  and  of  formidable  appearance, 
avoided  collision  with  the  soldiers,  and  employed  tactics 
simply  defensive.  They  cut  down  bridges,  and  de- 
stroyed boats  to  avoid  pursuit,  and  then  hastened 
towards  the  Scotch  capital,  hoping  to  receive  assistance 
from  the  citizens.  Disappointed  in  this  respect,  they 
retreated  to  the  Pentland  Hills,  where  they  were 
attacked  by  the  Royal  Army,  and  completely  routed, 
after  leaving  500  of  their  comrades  dead  on  the  field. 

*  Burnet,  I.  270. 


1G66.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  357 

Horrid  tortures  were  inflicted  on  those  Avho  were  taken 
prisoners  ;  sixteen  of  them  were  executed  at  Edinburgh, 
and  four  at  Glasgow,  all  with  their  dying  breath  de- 
nouncing Prelacy,  laying  the  shedding  of  their  blood 
at  the  Bishops'  doors,  praying  for  the  King,  and  begging 
the  Almighty  to  take  away  the  wicked  from  about  the 
throne.  The  disgusting  details  are  related  with  still 
more  disgusting  barbarity  by  correspondents  in  Scot- 
land, who  sent  to  London  intelligence  upon  the  subject* 
The  report  in  England  of  fanaticism  on  the  one  hand, 
and  cruelty  on  the  other,  exasperated  both  Churchmen 
and  Nonconformists.  The  former  had  their  suspicions 
strengthened  as  to  the  rebellious  intentions  attributed 
to  Presbyterians  ;  and  the  latter  were  indignant  at  the 
vengeance  wreaked  upon  men  whom  they  believed  to 
be  sufferers  for  conscience'  sake. 

Traces  are  left  of  contemporary  gossip  in  letters 
written  at  the  time.  There  is,  said  one,  a  general 
gaping  of  the  Nonconformists  as  to  the  issue  of  the  dis- 
turbances in  Scotland.  There  are,  said  another,  reports 
of  a  stir  in  Hereford,  about  hearth-money;  and  an 
eminent  Presbyterian  wrote,  that  thousands  of  Scots 
were  up  and  declaring  for  King  and  Covenant,  having 
Colonel  Carr,  an  old  Kirk-man,  amongst  them.  Other 
correspondents  affirmed  they  did  not  wish  the  Scots 
for  guides,  and  then  they  reported,  "high  differences 
among  great  persons  murmuring,  and  fears  of  the 
Oath."t  Churchmen  protested  that  they  had  fore- 
warned their  sober  friends  of  the  other  party,  and 
described  how  the  folly  and  insolence  of  Nonconformist 
guides  would  provoke  the  authorities  to  check  them.J: 

*  "  State  Papers,  Cal."  1666-67,  pref.  xix.-xxiii.,  and  references, 
t  "Dom.  Chas.  II.,"  1666,  Dec.  3rd.     Richard  Browne  to  Wil- 
liamson.    Same  date,  John  Allen  to  Williamson. 
%  Dr.  Basire  to  Williamson,  1666,  Dec.  17th. 


35S  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [CuAr.  IX. 

Mormonism  was  then  unknown.  There  were  in 
existence  no  agents  of  that  strangely  compounded 
system,  inviting  emigrants  to  the  Western  world  ;  but 
there  were  people  wandering  about  England  who  tried 
to  persuade  the  credulous  and  simple  to  repair  to  the 
Palatinate,  saying  that  there  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
was  to  be  restored,  and  that  England,  whose  sins  were 
so  great,  was  on  the  edge  of  destruction.  These 
apostles  framed  a  covenant,  which  they  concealed 
from  those  who  were  not  likely  to  subscribe  it,  to 
renounce  such  powers  and  rulers  as  were  contrary  to 
Christ,  and  to  His  Government,  to  refuse  their  money, 
and  to  separate  themselves  entirely  from  all  anti- 
Christian  religions.  They  promised  to  obey  God's 
laws,  especially  those  relating  to  the  Sabbath,  and 
never  to  intermarry  with  strangers,  to  devote  them- 
selves wholly  to  the  service  of  the  Almighty,  and  try 
to  find  a  place  where  they  might  become  a  distinct 
people.  Explanations  were  added  to  the  effect,  that 
the  powers  renounced  were  persecuting  powers,  but 
that  God's  laws,  if  practised  by  them,  were  not  to  be 
renounced,  that  no  ruler  was  to  be  allowed  by  them 
who  did  not  enter  into  communion  with  them,  and 
that  coins  bearing  an  image  or  superscription  contrary 
to  God's  Word  should  be  cast  away.* 

The  Dutch,  who  had  alarmed  the  Government  in 
1666,  alarmed  them  again,  and  the  whole  nation  be- 

*  '•  State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1666,  Dec.  I4tli.  Afurther 
allusion  is  made  to  these  strange  people  in  a  letter  by  Sanderson 
to  "Williamson,  Feb.  5,  1667,  in  which,  also,  reference  is  made  to 
Mr.  Cocks,  steward  to  Lady  Vane,  at  Raby  Castle,  as  a  very 
dangerous  person.  There  is  likewise  a  previous  letter  on  the 
same  subject  (1666,  Nov.  6th).  In  another  paper,  attached  to  that 
of  Feb.  5th,  allusions  occur  to  persons  of  quality  as  engaged  in 
plots.  "They  will  try  to  get  up  Richard  Cromwell  as  the  only 
one  who  has  a  right  to  rule." 


1667.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  359 

sides,  much  more,  in  1667.    One  division  of  the  enemy's 
fleet  swept  up  the  Medway  past  Sheerness,  the  other, 
to  divert  attention,  sailed  up  the  Thames.     The  former 
burst  the  chain  hung  across  the  stream,  fired  at  the 
batteries,  reduced  to  ashes  three  first-rate  men-of-war, 
and  then  returned  unmolested  to  join  the  rest  of  their 
own  vessels  at  the  Nore.     The  influence  produced  by 
this  unprecedented  invasion  is  vividly  reflected  in  the 
following  letter: — "The  merchants  are  undone.     Our 
great  bankers   of  money   have    shut    up    their    shops. 
People  are  ready  to  tear  their  hair   off  their   heads. 
Great  importunity  hath  been  used  at  Whitehall  for  a 
Parliament,  and  more  particularly  by  Sir  George  Saville, 
but  nothing  will  prevail ;  there  is  one  great  gownsman 
against  it,  and  all  the  Bishops    and  Papists,   and  all 
those  who  have  cozened  and  cheated  the  King.     News 
came  this  day  to  the  King,  the  French  are  come  from 
Brest,  and  appear  before  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  some  at 
Court  give  out  that  they  are  friends,  and  not  enemies. 
We  expect  the  Dutch  as  far  as  Woolwich.     People  are 
fled  from  Greenwich  and  Blackwall  with  their  families 
and  children.     We  are  betrayed,  let  it  light  where  it 
will."*     And  a  few  days  afterwards  the  nation,  from 
end  to  end,  was   agitated  by  the  intelligence  of  the 
Dutch   attack,  many  Dissenters   idly   attributing   the 
success  of  the  daring  manoeuvre  to  the  teaching  of  the 
Government  and  to  Popish  counsels  at  head-quarters.f 

*  "  State  Papers."     Letter  by  John  Rushworth,  1667,  June  15. 

t  "Chester,  a  stronghold  of  Nonconformity,  was  much  per- 
plexed. Some  said  we  were  asleep,  or  should  have  fortified 
ourselves,  knowing  the  enemy  near.  All  concluded  there  ^vas 
treachery  in  the  business,  and  hoped  the  contrivers  would  receive 
the  reward  due  to  those  who  betray  King  and  country."  Sir 
Geoffry  Shakerley  to  Wilhamson,  Chester,  June  19,  1667.  ("  State 
Papers.") 

"  At  Yarmouth  the  Presbyterian  party  raised  the  cry  of  treachery 


36o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

An  empty  exchequer  was  the  chronic  disease  of 
Charles  II. 's  reign,  and  so  low  did  the  Royal  revenue 
sink  this  year  that  twenty-six  footmen  in  His  Majesty's 
establishment  were  forced  to  petition  for  wages,  which 
had  been  due  the  previous  Michaelmas.  To  meet  the 
exigencies  of  the  moment,  letters  were  written  to  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  as  the  head  of  the  legal  profession,  to 
the  Lord-Lieutenants  of  Counties,  as  representing  the 
landed  interest,  and  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
to  procure  loans  and  voluntary  contributions  at  that 
"time  of  public  danger."  "We  are  the  rather,"  it  is 
observed  in  the  letter  to  His  Grace,  "  induced  to  believe 
labour  herein  will  be  successful,  because  you  are  to 
deal  with  a  sort  of  persons  endued  with  discretion  and 
ingenuity,  who  cannot  forget  what  tenderness  we  have 
for  them,  what  care  to  protect  and  support  them,  and 
how  much  their  interest  and  welfare  is  involved  in 
ours ;  but  arguments  and  motives  of  this  nature  we 
leave  to  your  prudent  management."  * 

The  damage  actually  done  by  the  Dutch  fleet  was 
small,  and  nothing  compared  with  the  dangers  threat- 
ened by  the  audacity  of  its  advance.  The  treaty  of 
peace,  which  speedily  followed,  relieved  the  nation 
from  alarm,  but  it  by  no  means  wiped  out  the  disgrace 
which  the  nation  had  to  bear.f 

because  there  had  been  an  attempt  to  leave  the  place  in  charge 
of  Major  Markham,  who  was  disliked  as  being  a  Papist  ;  and 
because  the  trained  bands  had  been  sent  for  to  Newmarket,  and 
none  others  sent  in  their  room,  and,  therefore  the  town  left 
defenceless."     (June  21,  1667.) 

*  "  State  Papers."     Same  date. 

t  The  peace  with  Holland,  which  was  proclaimed  August  24, 
1667,  was  very  popular.  At  Weymouth  "it,  as  it  were,  raised  the 
dead  to  life,  and  made  them  rich  in  thought,  though  their  purses 
are  empty.  At  Lynn  the  bells  have  hardly  lain  still  since  the 
news  of  peace."     "State  Papers,  Cal,"  1667-68,  pref.  Iv. 


16C7.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  361 

Within  three  months  after  the  booms  had  been 
broken  by  the  Dutch  in  the  Medway,  Clarendon's  term 
of  power  was  at  an  end.  A  bad  harvest  is  a  bad  thing 
for  an  English  Ministry,  especially  for  the  Chief  of  the 
Cabinet.  The  visitations  of  Heaven  are  set  down  to 
his  account,  and  all  the  weak  points  of  his  administra- 
tion, all  the  errors  of  his  policy,  all  the  faults  of  his 
character,  are  brought  out  most  vividly  in  the  light  of 
adverse  circumstances.  So  it  was,  that  after  the  Plague 
and  the  Fire  of  London,  with  which  Clarendon  could 
have  had  nothing  to  do,  the  eyes  of  the  people  were 
strangely  opened  to  the  defects  of  his  government  ; 
and,  when  the  English  Lion  was  bearded  by  the  in- 
solence of  the  Hollanders,  there  fell  upon  the  great 
statesman  the  anger  of  a  whole  people.  To  meet  the 
evil,  which  he  had  failed  to  prevent,  he  counselled  the 
King  to  dissolve  Parliament,  and  maintain  the  defences 
of  the  country  by  forced  contributions.  This  private 
advice  was  blown  abroad,  inspiring  indignation  in  the 
people,  and  bringing  discomfiture  to  the  Minister.  He 
did  not  want  courage,  but  it  was  now  useless.  What 
he  hoped  would  appear  to  the  King  the  firmness  of  an 
upright  mind,  was  regarded  by  His  Majesty  as  the 
obstinacy  of  a  stubborn  will.  In  vain  the  Duke  of 
York  pleaded  in  his  behalf.  The  Chancellor  was 
forced  to  resign  the  Great  Seal  on  the  30th  of  August.* 

Clarendon,  in  the  impeachment  which  followed  in 
the  month  of  November,  was  charged  with  unconstitu- 
tional acts,  but,  of  all  the  seventeen  heads  under  which 
the  charges  were  arranged,  not  more  than  three,  seriously 
affecting  his  character  as  a  statesman,  contained  matters 

*  Of  the  disgrace  of  Lord  Chancellor  Clarendon,  the  notes  in 
the  "  State  Papers,"  as  Mrs.  Green  says,  are  "  provokingly  few 
and  unimportant." 


362  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

which  could  be  clearly  proved.  The  first  allegation, 
that  he  had  encouraged  the  King  to  raise  a  standing 
army,  and  to  govern  the  country  without  Parliaments, 
although  an  exaggerated  statement,  had  some  founda- 
tion. Respecting  the  truth  of  the  fourth  article,  that 
he  had  procured  the  imprisonment  of  divers  persons 
contrary  to  law,  there  could  be  no  doubt  whatever. 
The  eleventh  charge,  touching  the  sale  of  Dunkirk  to 
the  French  for  no  greater  amount  than  the  worth  of 
the  ammunition  and  stores,  was  false  with  regard  to 
his  being  content  with  the  price,  but  true  as  it  respects 
his  promoting  the  sale.  Nor  did  the  impeachment,  so 
far  as  it  could  be  established,  fix  upon  the  Minister  the 
guilt  of  high  treason,  yet,  short  of  that,  it  proved  him 
to  be  a  person  dangerous  to  the  country,  and  unfitted 
to  continue  in  the  office  he  had  filled.  Virtuous  and 
patriotic  men  might  fairly  have  insisted  upon  the  de- 
gradation of  the  Chancellor,  but  it  must  be  confessed 
virtuous  and  patriotic  men  were  not  prime  movers  in 
his  punishment.  The  intrigues  of  women,  anything 
but  virtuous,  had  most  to  do  with  it,  for  Clarendon  had 
unfortunately  excited  the  wrath  of  Charles'  mistresses, 
who,  by  working  upon  the  Monarch's  too  easy  temper, 
had  implanted  in  his  bosom  a  dislike  to  his  old  friend. 
The  object  of  these  ladies  was  promoted  by  the  assist- 
ance of  Cavalier  gentlemen  who  never  forgave  Claren- 
don for  the  Act  of  Indemnity,  and  who  considered  that 
he  had,  at  the  Restoration,  largely  neglected  the  per- 
sonal interests  of  the  Royalists.  Three  Bishops  were 
numbered  amongst  the  Peers  who  protested  against 
the  refusal  of  the  Upper  House  to  commit  the  Minister 
upon  the  charge  of  treason.*  The  Catholics  owed  him 
no  gratitude,  for  they  knew  his  dislike  to  their  religion, 

*  Hallam's  "  Constit.  Hist.,"  II.  69. 


1GC7.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  363 

and  with  the  nation  generally,  he  had  become  unpopular 
for  many  reasons,  particularly  for  the  part  he  had  taken 
in  the  sale  of  Dunkirk.  It  is  a  little  surprising,  that 
Presbyterians,  who,  perhaps,  had  more  reason  than  any 
class  to  complain  of  his  administration,  were  not  amongst 
his  inveterate  adversaries.  Colonel  Birch,  who  belonged 
to  that  denomination,  was,  indeed,  one  of  the  Tellers 
on  the  side  of  impeachment,  but  Baxter  notices,  as  a 
Divine  providence,  that  the  man  who  had  dealt  so 
cruelly  with  the  Nonconformists  w^as  cast  out  by  his. 
own  friends,  "  while  those  that  he  had  persecuted  were 
the  most  moderate  in  his  cause,  and  many  for  him."  * 

In  writing  a  letter  to  his  daughter,  the  Duchess  of 
York,  just  after  her  conversion  to  Popery,  the  necessities 
of  Clarendon's  argument  forced  him  to  adopt  a  position, 
which,  if  he  had  sincerely  taken  it  up  at  an  earlier 
period,  must  have  diverted  him  from  that  persecuting 
course,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  blots  on  his  history. 
"  The  common  argument,"  he  remarks,  "  that  there  is 
no  salvation  out  of  the  Church,  and  that  the  Church 
of  Rome  is  that  only  Church,  is  both  irrational  and 
untrue."  "There  are  many  Churches  in  which  salva- 
tion may  be  attained,  as  well  as  in  any  one  of  them^ 
and  were  many  even  in  the  apostolic  time  ;  otherwise 
they  would  not  have  directed  their  Epistles  to  so  many 

*  Baxter,  III.  26.  Holies  the  Presbyterian  protested  against 
the  banishment  of  Clarendon.  (Hallam,  II.  69.)  The  fall  of 
Clarendon  comes  but  incidentally  within  the  range  of  this  history. 
For  a  legal  and  constitutional  view  of  his  impeachment,  I  must 
refer  the  reader  to  Mr.  Hallam,  and  Lord  Campbell.  In  the 
"Life  of  James  II."  edited  by  Clarke,  Vol.  I.  431,  it  is  stated 
that  the  Presbyterian  party  made  overtures  to  Clarendon,  to 
stand  by  him,  if  he  would  stand  by  himself,  and  join  with  the 
Duke  of  York  in  opposing  his  enemies  ;  hoping  thereby  to  separate 
the  Duke  from  his  brother,  and  to  "  bring  low  the  regal  authority." 
This  is  a  very  improbable  story. 


364  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

several  Churches,  in  which  there  were  different  opinions 
received  and  very  different  doctrines  taught.  There  is, 
indeed,  but  one  faith  in  which  we  can  be  saved,  the 
steadfast  behef  of  the  birth,  passion,  and  resurrection 
of  our  Saviour.  And  every  Church  that  receives  and 
€7nbraces  that  faith  is  in  a  state  of  salvationy  *  The 
whole  history  of  the  Chancellor  must  be  considered,  if 
we  would  form  a  just  estimate  of  his  character.  That 
he  was  a  man  of  great  ability,  that  he  possessed  states- 
manlike qualities,  that  he  performed  services  valuable 
to  the  nation,  at  a  very  critical  period  of  its  history, 
that  he  had  a  sense  of  religion,  and  was  attached  to 
the  Episcopal  Church,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Those 
who  glory  in  that  Church  as  established  upon  the  Act 
of  Uniformity  will  praise  him  for  his  wisdom  ;  those 
who  form  a  different  opinion  must  withhold  such  lauda- 
tion. But,  apart  from  all  ecclesiastical  questions,  and 
also  putting  aside  the  motives  by  which  Clarendon  was 
influenced  throughout  his  career,  with  all  its  lights  and 
shadows,  there  are  two  aspects  of  his  conduct,  at  least, 
upon  which  the  historian  must  pronounce  a  severe 
censure.  To  say  nothing  of  his  pride  and  avarice,  there 
remain,  first,  his  persecution  of  the  Nonconformists  ; 
and  next,  the  dissimulation  which  he  practised,  in  con- 
nection with  measures  professedly  intended  for  their 
relief.  His  persecution  of  the  Nonconformists  is  a  fact 
which  speaks  for  itself  Whatever  notions  he  might 
have  of  what  the  Church  should  be,  it  was  a  gratuitous 
course,  and  it  betrayed  revenge  and  injustice,  to  treat 
Dissenters  in  the  manner  which  he  did  :  revenge,  for 
he  crushed  them  as  conquered  foes,  injustice,  for  he 
dealt  with  them  all  as  disaffected  subjects,  whilst  the 

*  Clarendon's    "State   Papers,"    III.,    Sup.    xxxviii.      Lister's 
"  Life  of  Clarendon,"  II.  483. 


16G7.]  TFTE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  365 

loyalty  of  the  vast  majority  of  them  was  above  suspicion. 
If  his  clever  diplomacy  did  not  sink  into  downright 
dissimulation  in  the  business  of  the  Worcester  House 
Declaration,  the  circumstances  of  which  have  been  so 
fully  described,  if  there  was  not  also  much  deceptiveness 
in  the  promises  from  Beda,  and  in  the  plan  of  the 
Savoy  Conference,  both  of  which  Clarendon,  as  Charles' 
Minister,  must  have  advised,  it  is  hard  to  prove  that 
such  qualities  have  ever  belonged  to  any  human  being. 
Many  a  Jesuit  has  been  a  martyr,  and  I  give  the  Chan- 
cellor credit  for  such  an  attachment  to  the  Episcopal 
Church  as  would  have  led  him  to  suffer  on  its  behalf, 
but  no  man  could  be  more  Jesuitical  than  he  was  in 
the  course  of  policy  which  he  adopted  for  its  establish- 
ment. So  dark  a  fate  as  covered  the  last  days  of 
Strafford,  Laud,  and  Charles  I.,  did  not  attend  the 
final  destiny  of  the  great  Minister  of  Charles  II.,  still, 
calamities  overtook  him  after  his  prosperity,  and  his 
sun  set  in  a  cloud  ;  thus,  like  his  predecessors  in  defence 
of  the  Church,  he  has  secured,  through  sympathy  in  his 
misfortunes,  gentler  treatment  than  the  defects  of  his 
character  would  otherwise  have  received.* 

By  an  obvious  association  we  are  led  to  compare 
the  political  founder  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
seventeenth  century  with  his  predecessor  in  the  same 
capacity  a  hundred  years  before.  Both  Cecil,  Lord 
Burleigh,  and  Hyde,  Earl  of  Clarendon,  had  great 
difficulties  in  securing  the  stability  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment, in  dealing  with  political  discontent  and  disaffec- 

*  "  Historical  Inquiries  respecting  the  Character  of  Edward 
Hyde,  Earl  of  Clarendon,"  by  the  Hon.  George  Agar  Ellis,  has 
just  come  in  my  way.  He  paints  the  Chancellor  in  very  dark 
colours  indeed,  but  adds  nothing  to  the  facts  of  his  history  as 
given  by  popular  historians.  I  cannot  adopt  all  Mr.  Ellis'  con- 
demnatory conclusions. 


366  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [CiiAr.  IX. 

tion,  in  defending  the  Throne  against  perils,  and  in 
providing  revenues  for  the  Crown.  Both  statesmen, 
in  laying  the  corner  stones  of  their  ecclesiastical  polity, 
had  to  build  in  troublous  times,  and  each,  "  with  one 
of  his  hands  wrought  in  the  work,  and  with  the  other 
hand  held  a  weapon."  Both  of  them,  blind  to  the 
principle  of  religious  liberty,  employed  persecuting 
laws  in  the  service  of  what  they  deemed  the  best  form 
of  Christianity,  both  also,  together  with  other  crooked 
means  of  ruling,  employed  spies,  wherewith  to  see 
what  was  done  at  a  distance,  and  agents  wherewith 
to  put  in  action  secret  and  remote  machinery.  The 
contrast  between  the  two,  however,  is  more  striking 
than  the  resemblance.  If  difficulties  encompassed  the 
navigation  of  the  vessel,  the  helm  of  which  rested  in 
the  hand  of  Clarendon,  far  greater  difficulties  of  the 
same  and  other  kinds,  political  and  ecclesiastical, 
Popish  and  Puritan,  surrounded  the  course  of  Burleigh. 
Clarendon  was  not  as  cautious,  not  as  timid,  as  Bur- 
leigh. Perhaps  neither  of  them  exhibited  a  lofty  order 
of  genius  ;  but  Clarendon  appears  inferior  in  originality 
of  plan,  and  in  consistency  of  method.  Cecil  struck 
out  ideas  in  commerce  too  wise  for  the  age  in  which 
he  lived,  and  as  the  fruit  of  careful  meditation  in  retire- 
ment, he  laid  down  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  govern- 
ment on  the  accession  of  Elizabeth — from  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  which  he  did  not  deviate  in  his 
long  administration — but  Hyde  never  showed  himself 
to  be  more  than  an  experimentalist,  adopting  expe- 
dients as  circumstances  arose.  Cecil  was  more  in- 
tolerant towards  Papists  than  towards  Puritans.  Hyde 
seemed  more  averse  to  Protestant  Nonconformists  than 
to  Popish  recusants.  Cecil  had  broad  Protestant  sym- 
pathies, which  led  him,  as  far  as  possible,  to  promote 


1GG7.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  367 

the  cause  of  the  Reformation  abroad,  Hyde  manifested 
no  zeal  for  the  v/elfare  of  the  Reformed  Churches  on 
the  Continent.  Burleigh  did  not  enrich  himself  with 
the  spoils  of  office,  praise  which  cannot  be  given  to 
Clarendon.  Yet  justice  demands  the  admission  that 
Clarendon  did  suffer  for  his  principles,  at  least  the 
inconvenience  of  exile,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said 
of  Burleigh.  Finally,  success  attendant  upon  the  policy 
of  the  former  lasted  long  enough  to  demonstrate  the 
sagacity  of  the  author  ;  but  the  policy  of  the  latter 
failed  so  early  as  to  show,  that  he  did  not  anticipate 
what  was  sure  almost  immediately  to  arise,  that  he 
did  not  thoroughly  understand  the  character  of  his 
fellow-countrymen.*  The  illustration  of  this  latter  point 
is  required  by  the  conditions  of  our  History.  The 
Chancellor's  object  had  been  not  merely  to  establish  the 
Episcopal  Church,  but  to  crush  every  form  of  Dissent. 
Indeed,  his  notion  of  an  establishm.ent  was  that  it 
should  have  an  exclusive  existence  in  the  country,  that 
Nonconformity  should  have  no  place  whatever  under 
its  shadow.  Yet,  at  the  time  of  his  fall,  only  five  years 
after  the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  passed,  and  within  two 
years  of  the  passing  of  the  Five  Mile  Act,  not  only  did 
Popery  continue  to  lurk  within  these  dominions,  not 
only  did  it  make  its  way  amongst  the  upper  classes, 
but  Presbyterianism    recovered  itself  from   the    blows 

*  The  following  passage  on  Nonconformity  from  Clarendon's 
pen  is  equally  deficient  in  charity  and  wisdom : — "  Their  faction 
is  their  religion  :  nor  are  those  combinations  ever  entered  into 
upon  real  and  substantial  motives  of  conscience,  how  erroneous 
soever,  but  consist  of  many  glutinous  materials,  of  will,  and 
humour,  and  folly,  and  knavery,  and  ambition,  and  malice,  which 
make  men  inseparably  cling  together,  till  they  have  satisfaction 
in  all  their  pretences,  or  till  they  are  absolutely  broken  and  subdued, 
ivliicli  may  always  he  more  easily  done  than  the  other."  ("  Life  of 
Clarendon  "  by  Lister,  II.  121.) 


368  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

which  it  had  received,  and  Independents,  Baptists,  and 
Quakers,  secretly  or  openly,  promoted  the  spread  of 
their  opinions.  Of  this  fact,  passages  from  contem- 
poraries afford  striking  proofs.     On  the  4th  of  August, 

1666,  a  correspondent  at  Chester,  stated  that  the  City 
swarmed  with  "cardinal  Nonconformists,"  and  that 
they  were  so  linked  into  the  Magistracy,  by  alliance, 
that  it  was  very  difficult  to  bring  them  to  punishment ; 
only  a  few  of  them  attended  Divine  service,  and  even 
they  were  absent  during  the  prayers.  Experience, 
it  was  said,  proved  that  these  pretenders  to  religion, 
who  would  not  conform  to  the  Prince's  ecclesiastical 
authority,  only  submitted  to  the  civil  rule  until  they 
could  get  power  to  refuse  it.     On  the  31st  of  August, 

1667,  the  day  after  Clarendon  resigned  the  Great  Seal, 
a  letter  reached  Sir  Joseph  Williamson  complaining 
of  "  crowds  of  fanatics,"  about  Bath  and  Frome ;  and 
saying  the  gentry,  as  well  as  the  ignorant  and  ill- 
affected  classes,  helped  to  beget  a  jealousy  of  Popery, 
and  were  apparently  fallen  back  to  the  spirit  of  1642. 
It  was  added,  some  who  looked  big  in  Court,  and  in 
Parliament,  had  sheltered  the  unlawful  vessels  of  the 
malcontented  and  the  furious  within  their  allotments, 
and  in  their  own  families — more  especially,  since  the 
late  exigencies  had  arisen. 

On  the  loth  of  September  the  same  year,  another 
person  at  Bath  declared  that  the  Nonconformists  grew 
in  numbers  and  insolence,  saying  they  should  have 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  that  the  Government,  which 
could  not  stand  much  longer,  could  do  no  other- 
wise than  allow  them  freedom.  They  had  reached 
such  a  degree  of  insolence  as  to  break  open  church 
doors,  and  to  get  into  the  buildings  there  to  vent 
sedition   and  rebellion.      The  minister   at   Marshfield 


1667.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  369 

often  returned  from  church  for  want  of  a  congregation, 
even  of  two  or  three,  whereas,  at  the  same  time,  500 
met  in  a  barn  within  the  town.  They  transformed 
such  buildings  into  the  Hkeness  of  churches,  with  seats 
for  the  convenience  of  speaking  and  hearing.  The 
writer,  who  was  a  clergyman,  declared  that  he  had 
taken  all  ways  imaginable  to  keep  his  people  within 
the  bounds  of  sobriety  and  obedience,  and  had  preached 
constantly  twice  a  day  to  suit  their  humour  in  all 
things  lawful,  descending  to  the  plainest  and  most 
practical  speaking,  and  had  never  used  a  note,  or  so 
much  as  written  a  word.  Moreover,  he  had  treated  the 
party  with  all  civility  and  kindness,  and  been  very 
pacificatory  in  public  and  private,  yet  all  seemed  in 
vain,  and  he  saw  that  a  minister  must  be  a  martyr.* 
East  Anglia  had  for  many  years  been  remarkable  for 
the  number  and  prosperity  of  Congregational  churches. 
No  less  than  seventeen  had  been  instituted  between 
1643  and  1653 — these  all  continue  until  this  day, — 
and  in  1667,  the  period  now  under  our  notice,  it  was 
reported  respecting  Wrentham,  in  Suffolk,  "that  religion 
had  there  flourished  longer,  the  Gospel  had  been  more 
clearly  and  powerfully  preached  and  more  generally 
received  ;  the  professors  of  it  were  more  sound  in  the 
truth,  open  and  steadfast  in  the  possession  of  it,  in  an 
hour  of  temptation,  more  united  amongst  themselves 
and  more  entirely  preserved  from  enemies  without, 
than  in  any  village  of  the  like  capacity  in  England."  t 
A  contemporary  author  affirms  that  the  Noncon- 
formists everywhere  spread  through  city  and  country, 
they  made  no  small  part  of  all  ranks  and  sorts  of  men, 

*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,"  under  dates. 

t  "  MS.    Experience     of    Samuel    Baker,    Wattisfield     Hall, 
Suffolk." 

VOL.  III.  2  B 


370  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  IX. 

by  relations  and  commerce  they  were  so  woven  into 
the  nation's  interest,  that  it  was  not  easy  to  sever  them 
without  unravelling  the  skein.  They  were  not  excluded 
from  the  nobility,  among  the  gentry  they  were  not  a 
few,  yet  none  were  of  more  importance  than  mere 
tradesmen,  and  such  as  lived  by  their  own  industry. 
To  suppress  them  would  beget  a  general  insecurity, 
and  might  help  to  drive  trade  out  of  the  country,  and 
send  it  to  find  a  home  with  an  emulous  and  encroach- 
ing nation.  If  no  greater  latitude  could  be  allowed 
than  existed  at  that  time,  a  race  of  Nonconformists 
would,  in  all  probability,  run  parallel  with  Conformists 
to  the  end  of  the  world.* 

*  "A  Discourse  of  the  Religion  of  England,"  1667. 


1667.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  371 


CHAPTER  X. 

It  was  a  pamphleteering  age  ;  and  religion  as  well  as 
politics  fell  under  discussion  in  numerous  small  publi- 
cations. Some  one  published  in  the  beginning  of 
August,  1667,  under  the  name  of  "A  Lover  of  Sincerity 
and  Peace :  a  Proposition  for  the  Safety  and  Happi- 
ness of  the  King  and  Kingdom,  both  in  Church  and 
State,"  a  work  in  which  the  writer  advocated  compre- 
hension and  toleration.  In  the  middle  of  the  month 
of  October  there  followed  a  reply,  from  the  pen  of  a 
Mr.  Tomkyns,  one  of  Sheldon's  chaplains.  The  same 
month  another  pamphlet,  just  quoted,  appeared,  under 
the  title  of  "  A  Discourse  of  the  Religion  of  England," 
maintaining  that  Reformed  Christianity,  settled  with 
due  latitude,  secures  the  stability  and  advancement  of 
the  kingdom  :  of  this  the  author  is  known  to  have 
been  John  Corbet,  an  ejected  minister,  who  lived 
privately  in  London,  after  the  passing  of  the  Bartholo- 
mew Act.*  Corbet  was  answered  by  a  Prebendary 
of  Westminster,  whereupon  Corbet  replied,  and  the 
Prebendary  put  in  a  rejoinder.  From  August  to 
November  the  printers  seem  to  have  been  very  busy 
in  producing  and  the  public  in  reading  controversial 
tracts. 

Whether   or   not   this    circumstance   arose    from    a 

*  Wood's  "  Athen.  Ox.,"  III.  1264. 


372  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

knowledge  of  what  was  going  on  in  upper  circles,  it 
is  certain  that,  now  Clarendon  had  gone,  Sir  Robert 
Atkins,  who  afterwards  became  one  of  the  Justices  of 
the  Common  Pleas,  and  ultimately  Lord  Chief  Baron 
of  the  Exchequer,  prepared  a  Bill  of  Comprehension. 
This  healing  measure.  Colonel  Birch,  member  for 
Penryn,  undertook  to  introduce  in  the  House  of 
Commons  ;  *  and  a  careful  account  of  it,  written  by 
Bishop  Barlow,  is  preserved  at  Oxford  in  the  Bodleian 
Library,!  from  which  document  we  derive  our  infor- 
mation. The  Bill  provided  that  ordained  ministers, 
whether  Episcopal  or  Presbyterian,  who  should  within 
the  next  three  months  subscribe  to  all  the  Articles  of 
Religion  "  which  only  concern  the  confession  of  the 
true  Christian  faith  and  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  " 
should  be  capable  of  preaching  in  any  church  or  chapel 
in  England,  of  administering  the  sacraments  according 
to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  of  taking  upon  them 
the  cure  of  souls,  and  of  enjoying  any  spiritual  pro- 
motion. After  prescribing  that  the  Common  Prayer, 
according  to  law,  should  be  read  before  sermon,  there 
follows  a  proviso,  that  no  one  should  be  denied  the 
Lord's  Supper,  although  he  did  not  kneel  in  the  act 
of  receiving  it ;  and  that  no  minister  should  be  com.- 
pelled  to  wear  the  surplice,  or  use  the  cross  in  baptism. 
The   authors   of  the   project,    in    addition   to   clauses 

*  "  It  is  said  that  an  Act  is  preparing  by  some  of  the  House 
for  the  dispensing  with  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  which  is  clearly 
against  the  Bishops'  government, — another  for  the  punishment  of 
such  as  have  been  the  occasions  of  misfortunes  befallen  this  land 
— as  also  against  those  that  counselled  the  dividing  the  fleet  :  so 
that  all  that  find  themselves  guilty  do  make  interest  in  the  Par- 
liament House.  Some  have  recourse  to  the  Presbyterian  party, 
which  they  would  not  do  if  they  were  not  brought  to  the  utmost 
extremity."     ("State  Papers,  News  Letter,"  Sept.  ^^77,  1667.) 

t  It  is' printed  in  Thorndike's  "Works,"  A\  302. 


1CG7.]  THE   CnURCII  OF  THE  RESTO RATIO X.  373 

touching  Presbyterian  ordination  and  ceremonies,  wished 
to  have  the  word  "  consent "  left  out  of  the  form  of 
subscription,  to  confine  subscription  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  Cliristian  faith,  not  to  bind  ministers  to  read  the 
Common  Prayer  themselves,  if  they  procured  others  to 
do  it,  and  to  lay  aside  the  Oath  of  Abjuration. 

The  session  of  Parliament  opened  on  the  loth  of 
October  and  ended  just  before  Christmas  ;  but  the 
Bill,  although  ready,  was  never  printed,  nor  brought 
into  the  House.  This  first  scheme  of  comprehension 
came  to  nothing,  but  a  second  scheme,  which  like  the 
first  failed  in  the  end,  proceeded  somewhat  further. 
Rumours  of  it  were  circulated  in  the  month  of  January, 
and  were  caught  up  by  Pepys,  to  whom  it  seemed 
there  was  a  presumption  of  toleration  being  granted, 
so  that  the  Presbyterians  held  up  their  heads :  ten 
days  later,  he  heard  that  the  King  approved  of  it,  but 
that  the  Bishops  were  against  it,  and  the  Diarist  states, 
his  informant.  Colonel  Birch,  did  not  doubt  but  it 
would  be  carried  through  Parliament ;  he  feared  only 
the  toleration  of  Papists.*  A  few  days  afterwards,  he 
heard  that  an  Act  was  likely  to  pass  for  admitting  all 
persuasions  to  hold  public  worship,  under  certain  con- 
ditions.! The  proposal  was  made  by  Sir  Orlando 
Bridgeman,  the  Lord  Keeper,  and  supported  by  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  the  Lord  Chief  Baron.t  The  Earl  of 
Manchester  favoured  the  plan,  and  Wilkins,  on  the 
Episcopal  side,  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  Pres- 
byterians, who  were  represented  by  Baxter,  Manton, 
and  Bates. 

Baxter  gives  a  full  account  of  the  scheme,  and  the 
account  is  confirmed  substantially  by  the  memoranda 

*  "Diary,"  Jan.  20  and  31,  166S.  t  Ibid.,  5th  Feb. 

+  The  part  taken  by  Hale  is  described  in  his  "  Life,"  by  Burnet. 


374  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

of  Barlow,  at  the  time  Archdeacon  of  Oxford,  and 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Lincohi.*  The  basis  of  the  plan 
was  the  King's  Declaration  from  Breda  ;  and  the 
scheme  may  be  considered  under  two  following 
aspects,  as  it  was  proposed  by  the  Episcopalians,  and 
as  it  was  modified  by  the  Presbyterians.  I  shall 
quote  a  few  passages  from  Barlow's  MS.,  as  it  is  im- 
portant to  convey  an  exact  idea  of  what  was  proposed 
at  this  time. 

I.  The  Episcopalians  proposed, — i.  That  such  persons 
as  in  the  late  times  of  disorder  had  been  ordained  only 
by  Presbyters,  should  be  admitted  to  the  exercise  of 
the  ministerial  function,  by  the  imposition  of  the  hands 
of  a  Bishop,  with  this  or  a  like  form  of  words  :  "  Take 
thou  (legal)  authority  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  and 
to  administer  the  sacraments  in  any  congregation  of 
the  Church  of  England  when  thou  shalt  be  lawfully 
appointed  thereto."  2.  That  clergymen  and  school- 
masters (after  taking  the  Oaths  of  Allegiance  or 
Supremacy)  should  be  required  to  subscribe  this  or  a  like 
form  :  "  I,  A.  B.,  do  hereby  profess  and  declare  that  I 
do  approve  the  doctrine,  worship,  and  government 
established  in  the  Church  of  England,  as  containing  all 
things  necessary  to  salvation  ;  and  that  I  will  not 
endeavour,  by  myself  or  any  other,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to  bring  in  any  doctrine  contrary  to  that 
which  is  so  established  :  and  I  do  hereby  promise,  that 
I  will  continue  in  the  communion  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  will  not  do  anything  to  disturb  the  peace 
thereof"  3.  That  kneeling  at  the  sacrament,  the  use 
of  the  cross  in  baptism,  and  bowing  at  the  name  of 

*  Made  Bishop  in  1675.  Barlow's  conduct  as  Bishop  did  not 
accord  with  the  hberahty  which  he  showed  at  this  period.  It 
will  be  noticed  hereafter. 


1667.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  375 

Jesus  might  be  left  indifferent  or  be  altogether  omitted  ; 
Barlow  being  willing  to  class  with  these  things  the 
wearing  of  the  surplice.  4.  That  in  case  it  should  be 
thought  fit  to  review  and  alter  the  Liturgy  and  canons 
for  the  satisfaction  of  Dissenters,  then  every  person 
admitted  to  preach  should,  upon  admission,  publicly 
and  solemnly  read  the  said  Liturgy,  openly  declare  his 
assent  to  the  lawfulness  of  using  it,  and  give  a  promise 
that  it  should  be  constantly  read  at  the  time  and  place 
accustomed.  It  also  was  added,  that  the  Liturgy 
might  be  altered  by  using  the  reading  Psalms  in  the 
new  translations  ;  by  appointing  some  other  lessons  out 
of  the  canonical  Scriptures  instead  of  those  taken  out 
of  the  Apocrypha;  by  not  enjoining  godfathers  and 
godmothers,  when  either  of  the  parents  was  ready  to 
answer  for  the  child  ;  by  omitting  "  every  clause  in  the 
services  connecting  regeneration  with  baptism  ; "  by 
omitting  in  the  Collect  after  imposition  of  hands  in 
Confirmation  this  clause,  "After  the  example  of  Thy 
holy  apostles,  and  to  certify  them  by  this  sign  of  Thy 
favour  and  gracious  goodness  towards  them  ; "  and  this 
also  in  the  ofifice  of  matrimony,  "  With  my  body  I  thee 
worship  ;  "  by  allowing  ministers  some  liberty  in  the 
visitation  of  the  sick,  to  use  such  other  prayers  as  they 
might  judge  expedient ;  by  so  altering  the  Burial 
Service,  as  to  imply  nothing  respecting  the  safety  of 
the  deceased  person  ;  by  several  changes  in  the  services 
with  a  view  to  abbreviation,  omitting  all  "responsal 
prayers,"  and  all  repetitions,  and  throwing  separate 
petitions  altogether  in  one  continuous  prayer ;  by  not 
reading  the  Communion  Service  at  such  times  as  are 
not  communion  days,  but  only  repeating  the  Ten 
Commandments ;  and  by  altering  the  catechism  at 
the   question,    "How   many   sacraments   hath    Christ 


376  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Cuap.  X. 

ordained  ? "  so  that  the  answer   may  be,  "  Two  only, 
Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper." 

II.  The  modifications  proposed  by  the  Presbyterians 
were  : — i.  That  all  ministers  ordained  by  Presbyters 
should,  when  admitted  by  the  Bishop  to  minister  in 
the  Church,  "  have  leave,"  if  they  "  desired  "  it,  to  "give 
in  their  profession,  that  they  renounce  not  their  ordina- 
tion nor  take  it  for  a  nullity,  and  that  they  take  this  as 
the  magistrate's  licence  and  confirmation."  2.  That  in 
the  form  of  subscription  they  should  assent  to  the  truth 
of  all  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  the  articles  of  Creed,  and 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England  contained  in 
the  Thirty-six  Articles  ;  or  to  the  doctrinal  part  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  excepting  only  the  three  articles 
touching  ceremonies  and  prelacy.  3.  That  an  appeal 
be  allowed  for  a  suspended  minister  from  the  Bishop 
to  the  King's  Courts  of  Justice  ;  and  lastly,  that  certain 
rules  be  enacted  for  the  due  enforcement  of  discipline, 
respecting  admission  to  holy  communion,  and  also 
respecting  meetings  for  worship.  A  few  additional 
suggestions  were  proposed,  relating  to  alterations  in 
the  Liturgy,  of  which  these  were  the  most  remarkable  : 
"  the  Lord's  Prayer  should  be  used  entirely  with  the 
Doxologies  ;  "  the  word  "  Sabbath  "  should  replace 
"  seventh-day  "  in  the  fourth  commandment ;  holydays 
should  be  "left  indifferent,  save  only  that  all  persons  be 
restrained  from  open  labour,  and  contempt  of  them  ; " 
and  "  no  minister  "  should  "  be  forced  "  to  "  baptize  the 
child  of  proved  atheists  and  infidels."  The  addition  of 
the  surplice  to  the  other  ceremonies  was  to  be  left 
indifferent ;  the  expression  "  sacramentally  "  was  to  be 
subjoined  to  the  word  "  regenerate  "  in  the  baptismal 
service  ;  the  catechism  was  to  be  altered  as  regards 
the  doctrine  of  the   sacraments ;  and  the  Absolution 


16G7.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  377 

in  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  was  to  be  made  con- 
ditional. 

After  considerable  debate,  principally  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  re-ordination,  a  Bill  of  Comprehension  was 
drawn  up  by  Sir  Matthew  Hale.  The  points  comprised 
were,  first,  the  insertion  of  the  word  "  legal "  before  the 
word  "authority"  instead  of  the  demanded  liberty  to 
declare  the  validity  of  the  previous  Presbyterian  ordina- 
tion ;  and  secondly,  the  omission  of  the  clause  pro- 
posed by  Baxter  and  his  friends  relating  to  appeals. 
Two  forms  of  subscription,  framed  so  as  to  exclude 
Romanists,  were  likewise  adopted  respectively  for  esta- 
blished ministers  and  for  tolerated  persons. 

The  Episcopalian  scheme,  endorsed  and  revised 
by  Barlow,  included  the  indulgence  of  such  orthodox 
Protestants  as  could  not  be  comprehended  within  the 
Establishment.  These,  upon  registering  their  names, 
were  to  have  liberty  to  worship  in  public,  and  to  erect 
edifices  for  that  purpose.  Although  disabled  from 
holding  public  offices,  they  were  to  be  fined  for  not 
fulfilling  them,  and  also  obliged,  "  according  to  their 
respective  qualities,"  to  pay  annually  for  indulgence,  a 
sum  not  above  forty  shillings,  nor  under  ten,  for  any 
master  of  a  family ;  not  above  eight,  nor  under  two,  for 
any  other  individual,  the  tribute  to  form  a  fund  for 
church  building.  Upon  producing  a  certificate.  Non- 
conformists were  to  be  exempted  from  legal  penalties 
for  non-attendance  at  parish  worship ;  but  they  were  to 
pay  church  rates,  and  it  was  suggested  by  Barlow  that 
they  should  be  forbidden  to  preach  against  the  Esta- 
blishment. This  arrangement  was  to  be  limited  to  three 
years,  and  to  be  confined  to  such  Protestants  as  are 
described  in  Cromwell's  Act  of  Settlement. 

These  intentions  were  frustrated.     Wilkins,  Bishop 


378  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

of  Chester,  mentioned  the  subject  to  Seth  Ward,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  "hoping  to  have  prevailed  for  his  con- 
currence in  it ; "  but  the  latter,  availing  himself  of  the 
communication,  did  his  utmost  to  defeat  the  scheme. 
The  Bishops  generally  were  against  it.  The  old 
Clarendon  party  was  against  it.*  Herbert  Thorndike 
wrote  his  "  True  Principle  of  Comprehension  "  in  the 
year  1667,  just  at  the  time  when  the  question  had  been 
taken  up  by  Wilkins  and  Barlow.f  He  did  not  at  all 
mince  the  matter,  but  began  by  saying  that  Presby- 
terians could  not,  any  more  than  Papists,  be  good 
subjects ;  an  assertion  which,  if  true,  would  of  course 
render  comprehension,  in  the  common  meaning  of  the 
term,  impossible,  but  it  is  not  in  that  meaning  that  he 
uses  the  term,  and  he  proceeds  to  declare  most  dis- 
tinctly, that  "  an  Act  comprehending  Presbyterians,  as 
such,  in  the  Church,  would  fail  of  its  purpose,  and  not 
give  satisfaction  or  peace  in  matters  of  religion."  The 
only  cure  for  disputes,  he  maintained,  was  to  authorize 
the  faith  and  laws  of  the  Catholic  Church,  i.e.,  within 
the  first  six  general  Councils,  "  enacting  the  same  with 
competent  penalties."  This  proposal  really  signified 
that  Nonconformists  were  to  retract  their  opinions 
altogether,  or  continue  to  be  persecuted.  What  the 
author  called  the  true  principle  of  comprehension  was 
the  false  principle  of  coercion.  He  would  have  men 
think  Avith  him,  and  if  possible  force  them  into  the 
Church  ;  if  they  were  incorrigible,  he  would  shut  them 
out  and  punish  them.     Nor  did  he  leave  any  doubt  as 

*  It  is  stated  by  Burnet,  "  Hist.,"  I.  259,  that  Tillotson  and  Stil- 
lingfleet  took  part  in  this  business,  but  Baxter  does  not  say  so, 
though  he  aUudes  to  them  as  friendly  to  the  scheme  of  1675. 
Perhaps  Burnet  confounded  the  two  attempts. 

t  He  did  not  pubhsh  what  he  wrote,  but  it  is  inserted  in  the 
Oxford  Edition  of  his  Works,  V.  309-344. 


1668.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  379 

to  what  he  intended  by  the  enactment  of  "  competent 
penalties  ; "  for  he  laid  down  the  doctrine,  that  the 
Church  is  justified  in  having  recourse  to  tJie  civil poivcr, 
to  enforce  union. 

Parliament  met  on  the  6th  of  February,  and  then 
adjourned  to  the  loth.  When  the  Commons  had 
assembled,  and  before  the  King  had  arrived,  reports 
were  made  to  the  House  respecting  insolent  language 
said  to  have  been  used  in  Nonconformist  Conventicles, 
and  it  being  known  that  in  the  Royal  Speech  some 
notice  would  be  taken  of  a  measure  of  Comprehension, 
about  which  there  had  been  so  much  discussion  out  of 
doors,  the  members  did  "  mightily  and  generally  inveigh 
against  it,"  and  they  voted  that  the  King  should  strictly 
put  in  force  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  It  was  also  moved, 
"  that  if  any  people  had  a  mind  to  bring  any  new  laws 
into  the  House,  about  religion,  they  might  come,  as  a 
proposer  of  new  laws  did  in  Athens,  with  ropes  about 
their  necks."  *  His  Majesty,  however,  in  his  speech 
from  the  throne,  recommended  the  Houses  to  adopt 
some  course  for  securing  "  a  better  union  and  composure 
in  the  minds  of  my  Protestant  subjects  in  matters  of 
religion."  f  From  this  it  appears  that  His  Majesty  felt 
disposed  to  favour  some  measure  pointing  in  the  same 
direction  as  did  that  which  had  been  drawn  up  by 
Barlow.  I 

Colonel  Birch  told  Pepys  on  the  28th  of  February, 
that  the  House  the  same  morning  had  been  in  a  state 
of  madness,  in  consequence  of  letters  received  respect- 
ing fanatics  who  had  come  in  great  numbers  to  certain 

*  Pepys'  "  Diary,"  Feb.  10,  1668. 

t  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  404. 

%  Birch,  as  we  have  seen,  informed  Pepys  that  the  King  was 
for  toleration,  but  the  Bishops  were  against  it.  The  great  diffi- 
culty was  about  tolerating  Papists. 


38o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

churches,  turning  people  out,  "  and  there  preaching 
themselves,  and  pulling  the  surplice  over  the  parsons' 
heads  ; "  this  excited  "  the  hectors  and  bravadoes  of  the 
House."  *  The  report  was  utterly  false,t  but  influenced 
by  it,  the  Commons,  on  the  4th  of  March,  resolved  to 
desire  His  Majesty  to  issue  a  Proclamation  for  en- 
forcing the  laws  against  Conventicles,  and  to  provide 
against  all  unlawful  assemblies  of  Papists  and  Noncon- 
formists.l  When,  upon  the  nth  of  March,  the  King's 
Speech  respecting  the  union  of  his  Protestant  subjects 
came  under  consideration,  all  sorts  of  opinions  were 
expressed  upon  all  sorts  of  ecclesiastical  topics.  One 
declared  that  he  never  knew  a  toleration  which  did  not 
need  an  army  to  keep  all  quiet;  another  expressed 
himself  in  favour  of  the  reform  of  Ecclesiastical  Courts, 
which  had  become  very  obnoxious.  A  third  concurred 
in  this  opinion,  and  also  complained  that  the  Bishops 
had  little  power  in  the  Church  except  authority  to 
ordain.  A  fourth  wished  to  see  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
revised,  in  order  to  temper  its  severe  provisions, 
especially  in  reference  to  the  Covenant,  and  assent  and 
consent  to  the  Common  Prayer.  A  fifth  compared  the 
King  and  clergy  to  a  master  having  quarrelsome 
servants,  "  One  will  not  stay  unless  the  other  goes 
away."  A  theological  debater  alluded  to  predestination 
and  free-will  as  at  the  foundation  of  all  the  religious 
disputes  in  England,  and  lamented  the  growth  of 
Arminianism,  affirming  that  so  long  as  the  Church  was 
true  to  herself,  she  need  not  be  in  fear  of  Noncon- 
formity ;  placing  candles  on  the  communion  table 
greatly   displeased   him.      A    Broad    Church   polemic 

*  Pepys'  "Diary,"  Feb.  28,  1668. 
t  "Life  of  Philip  Henry,"  112. 
%  "Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  413. 


1668.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  381 

held  that  the  Articles  were  drawn  up  so  that  both 
parties  might  subscribe,  and  that  Convocation  was  a 
mixed  assembly  of  "  both  persuasions  ; "  no  canon,  he 
said,  enjoined  bowing  at  the  altar,  and  Bishop  Morton 
left  people  to  use  their  own  liberty  as  to  that  practice  ; 
this  gentleman  was  against  Conventicles.  A  more 
prudent  debater  wished  to  veil  the  infirmities  of  his 
mother  rather  than  proclaim  them  in  Gath  and 
Askelon  ;  he  advocated  comprehension,  and  thought 
an  end  would  be  put  to  Nonconformity  by  making  two 
or  three  Presbyterian  Bishops.  These  brief  notices  of 
the  debate  will  afford  an  idea  of  the  diversity  of  opinion 
which  was  expressed.* 

Instead  of  the  Bill  described  by  Barlow,  or  any 
measure  of  a  similar  kind  for  comprehension  and  tole- 
ration, a  Bill  for  reviving  the  Conventicle  Act  was 
submitted  to  the  Commons.  The  Conventicle  Act  of 
1664  had  been  limited  in  its  operation  to  the  end  of  the 
next  session  of  Parliament  after  the  expiration  of  three 
years,  and  therefore  it  remained  no  longer  in  force. 
Leave  was  now  given  to  bring  in  a  Bill  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  it.  The  High  Church  party,  by  a  majority 
of  176  against  70,  negatived  the  proposal  that  His 
Majesty  be  desired  to  send  for  such  persons  as  he 
might  think  fit,  in  order  to  the  uniting  of  his  Protestant 
subjects:  the  first  instance,  as  Hallam  says,  "of  a 
triumph  obtained  by  the  Church  over  the  Crown  in  the 
House  of  Commons."  t  Upon  the  28th  of  April  the 
Bill  for  revising  the  Conventicle  Act  was  carried  by 
144  against  'j'i.     The  new  Conventicle  Bill,  sent  up  to 

*  "Pari.  Hist."  IV.,  414-422.  These  speakers  were  Colonel 
Sandys,  Sir  John  Earnly,  Sir  W.  Hickman,  Mr.  Ratcliffe,  Sir 
Walter  Yonge,  Sir  J.  Littleton,  Sir  John  Birkenhead,  and  Mr. 
Seymour. 

t  "Constitutional  History,"  II.  70. 


382  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Ciur.  X. 

the  Lords,  was  by  them  read  a  first  time  on  the  29th 
of  April,  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  reached  a 
second  reading,  as  the  House,  on  the  9th  of  May, 
adjourned  until  August,  then  again  to  November,  and 
then  again  to  the  following  March,  1669,  when  Parlia- 
ment was  prorogued.  Consequently  the  Bill  fell  through, 
and  the  law  with  regard  to  Conventicles  underwent  a 
change,  through  the  expiration  of  the  Act  of  1664. 

The  King  was  by  no  means  disinclined  to  relieve 
Dissenters  from  the  oppression  which  they  experienced, 
provided  he  might  extend  relief  on  his  own  authority, 
and  at  his  own  pleasure.  In  the  autumn  of  i668^he 
granted  an  audience,  at  the  Earl  of  Arlington's  lodgings, 
to  a  few  Presbyterian  clergymen.  Of  this  interview, 
Manton  gave  an  account  to  his  friend  Richard  Baxter. 
With  characteristic  graciousness,  which  was  the  charm 
of  his  reign,  and  which,  in  spite  of  his  vices,  won 
many  hearts,  Charles  was  pleased  once  and  again 
to  signify  how  acceptable  was  the  address  presented 
by  the  Presbyterians,  and  how  much  he  was  persuaded 
of  their  peaceable  disposition  ;  adding  that  he  had 
known  them  to  be  so  ever  since  his  return,  and  then 
he  promised  that  he  would  do  his  utmost  to  get  them 
comprehended  within  the  Establishment,  and  would 
strive  to  remove  all  those  bars  which  he  could  wish 
had  never  existed.  Something,  however,  he  proceeded 
to  say,  must  be  done  for  public  peace,  and  they  could 
not  be  ignorant  that  what  he  desired  was  a  work  of 
difficulty,  and  therefore  they  must  wait  until  the  busi- 
ness was  ripe.  In  the  meanwhile  he  wished  them  to 
use  their  liberty  with  moderation.  He  observed  that 
the  meetings  held  were  too  numerous,  and  that  (besides 
their  being  contrary  to  law)  they  occasioned  clamorous 
people  to  complain,  as  if  the  Presbyterian  design  was  to 


16C9.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOy.  3S3 

undermine  the  Church.  He  instanced  what  he  called 
the  folly  of  one  who  had  preached  in  a  play-house, 
upon  which  the  ministers  informed  him  they  disliked 
such  conduct,  and  that  they  had  rebuked  the  individual 
for  affronting  the  Government.  The  King  instanced 
another  case,  but  with  a  preface  that  he  greatly  re- 
spected the  person  for  his  worth  and  learning,  meaning 
"  Mr.  Baxter,  of  Acton,"  who  "drew  in  all  the  country 
round."  Manton  replied  that  Baxter  went  to  church, 
and  then  preached  himself  during  the  interval  between 
morning  and  evening  service.  His  first  intention  was 
simply  to  benefit  his  own  family,  but  it  was  hard  to 
exclude  such  as  might  be  supposed  to  come  for  spiritual 
edification.  Manton  further  alleged  the  general  need 
of  religious  instruction,  and  the  fact  that  Noncon- 
formists were  not  all  alike.  If  people  of  unsober  prin- 
ciples were  permitted  to  preach,  he  urged  the  necessity 
which  lay  upon  others  to  take  the  same  liberty.  His 
Majesty  replied  that  "  the  riffie  raffie  "  were  apt  to  run 
after  every  new  teacher,  but  people  of  quality  might  be 
intreated  not  to  assemble,  or,  at  least,  not  in  such  mul- 
titudes, lest  the  scandal  thereby  raised  should  obstruct 
his  generous  intentions.  Charles  seemed  pleased  when 
Manton  suggested  that  his  brethren's  sobriety  of  doc- 
trine, and  remembrance  of  His  Majesty  in  their  prayers, 
were  calculated  to  preserve  an  esteem  for  his  person 
and  government  in  the  hearts  of  his  people,  and 
Arlington  plucked  his  master  by  the  coat,  desiring  him 
to  note  what  was  said.  Manton  remarked,  in  con- 
clusion, that  Baxter  would  have  accompanied  them  to 
the  audience,  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  illness.* 

Sheldon,  writing  a  letter  from  Lambeth  on  the  8th 
of  June,   1669,  addressed   to   the  Commissary  of  the 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  37. 


384  RELIGION  m  ENGLAND.  [CnAr.  X. 

diocese  of  Canterbury,  after  quoting  His  Majesty's 
denial  of  connivance  at  Conventicles,  his  displeasure  at 
the  vi^ant  of  care  in  the  matter  manifested  by  the 
Bishops,  and  his  determination  that  they  should  have 
the  civil  magistrates'  assistance,  proceeds  to  direct  that 
inquiries  should  be  made  as  to  unlawful  religious  as- 
semblies, what  were  their  numbers,  of  what  sort  of 
people  they  consisted,  and  from  whom  they  looked  for 
impunity.  Conventicles  were  to  be  made  known  to 
Justices,  and  if  Justices  neglected  their  duty,  such 
neglect  was  to  be  certified.  The  Primate  asked  \yhether 
the  same  persons  did  not  meet  at  several  Conventicles 
which  might  make  them  seem  more  numerous  than 
they  were  ;  and  whether  the  Commissary  did  not  think 
they  might  be  easily  suppressed  by  the  assistance  of 
the  civil  magistrate  ;  the  greatest  part  of  them  being, 
as  the  Archbishop  heard,  women,  children  and  incon- 
siderable persons.* 

Charles  complied  with  the  wishes  of  Sheldon  so  far 
as  to  issue  a  Proclamation  complaining  of  the  increase, 
and  threatening  the  punishment  of  Nonconformists,  but 
he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  intolerance  in  which  such 
wishes  originated.!  He  had  said,  if  wc  may  trust 
Burnet's  report,  the  clergy  were  chiefly  to  blame  for 
the  popularity  of  Conventicles,  for  if  they  had  lived  as 
they  ought,  and  attended  to  their  parish  duties,  the 
nation  might,  by  that  time,  have  been  reduced  to  eccle- 
siastical order.  "  But  they  thought  of  nothing  but  to 
get  good  benefices,  and  to  keep  a  good  table."  % 

*  "  Concilia,"  IV.  588.  The  returns  are  found  among  the 
Tenison  MSS.,  Lambeth,  No.  639.  There  were  returns  from 
some  dioceses  in  1665. 

t  Sheldon  complained  that  he  could  not  obtain  the  returns  that 
he  wanted.     (Lambeth  MSS.,  August  16,  1669.) 

X  "  Own   Time,"   L    258.      I    may    observe   here,   that   party 


1669.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  3S5 

Nonconformists  naturally  availed  themselves  of  the 
circumstance  that  the  Conventicle  Act  had  expired  ; 
and  Baxter  now  had  more  hearers  at  Acton  than  he 
could  find  room  to  accommodate.  "Almost  all  the 
town  and  parish,  besides  abundance  from  Brentford 
and  the  neighbour  parishes,  came."  *  But  though  the 
Conventicle  Act  had  expired,  the  Five  Mile  Act,  as 
Charles  indicated  in  his  Proclamation  of  July,  1669, 
remained  in  force  ;  and  therefore,  means  existed,  not 
only  for  silencing,  but  also  for  punishing  the  Presby- 
terian Divine.  Accordingly  he  was  soon  involved  in 
trouble.  In  a  roundabout  way,  a  warrant  was  procured 
in  which  Baxter  stood  charged  with  keeping  an  un- 
lawful Conventicle.  The  Oxford  Oath  being  tendered 
he  refused  to  take  it,  and  argued,  with  his  usual  keen- 
ness, against  its  imposition.  One  of  the  magistrates 
only  laughed,  and  Baxter  was  sent  to  prison. 

To  the  inquiries  issued  by  Sheldon  in  June,  returns 
before  the  end  of  the  year  were  made,  and  they  supply 
much  valuable  information  respecting  Nonconformity. 
A  long  list  is  given  of  Conventicles  in  the  Metropolis. 
Manton's  congregation  at  his  own  house,  Covent 
Garden,  and  Calamy's,  next  door  to  the  "  Seven  Stars," 
Aldermanbury,  are  estimated  at  100  ;  Zachary  Crofton's, 

writers  on  both  sides  treat  Burnet  according  to  their  prejudices  ; 
the  one  party  beheving  imphcitly  everything  he  says  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  Church  ;  the  other  party  rejecting  his  evidence 
on  this  subject  as  utterly  worthless.  It  appears  to  me  that, — 
remembering  Burnet's  gossiping  habits,  and  that  he  was  a  strong 
party  man,  and  also  noticing  that  he  often  tells  his  stories  in  a 
loose  way,  and,  like  Clarendon,  writes  down  his  recollections  long 
after  the  time  when  the  incidents  he  records  had  occurred,  we 
ought  to  read  him  with  great  care,  and  not  place  implicit  reliance 
upon  his  unsupported  testimony.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  Burnet 
appears  to  have  been  an  honest  man.  His  life  and^  character 
will  be  noticed  in  a  future  volume. 

*  "  Life  and  Times,"  111.  46. 

VOL.  III.  2    C 


386  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

Tower  Hill,  and  Captain  Kiffin's,  of  Finsbuiy  Court, 
at  200  ;  Vincent's  of  Hand  Alley,  and  Caryl's,  at  Mr. 
Knight's  house,  Leadenhall  Street,  at  500 ;  and  Dr. 
Annesley's  in  Spitalfields,  at  a  new  house  for  that 
purpose  with  pulpit  and  seats,  at  800  ;  Owen,  in  White's 
Alley,  Moorfields,  is  mentioned  without  any  number  of 
hearers  being  returned.  It  is  stated  in  the  report  that 
besides  those  congregations  which  are  specified,  there 
were  many  others  at  private  houses,  sometimes  at  one 
house,  sometimes  at  another.  Several  meetings  of  the 
same  persuasion  were  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of 
the  same  persons.  They  were  much  increased  by 
stragglers,  who  walked  on  Sunday  for  recreation,  and 
then  went  into  the  Conventicles  out  of  curiosity.  The 
worshippers  consisted  of  women  and  persons  of  mean 
rank.  The  meetings  had  increased  since  the  execution 
of  the  Oxford  Act  had  been  relaxed.  In  the  City  of 
Canterbury,  Nonconformity  took  deep  root.  In  the 
parishes  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  the  Independents 
amounted  to  500  at  least.  They  met  in  the  morning 
at  St.  Peter's,  in  the  afternoon  at  St.  Paul's.  In  St. 
Dunstan's  there  were  Presbyterians,  but  they  were  not 
so  many  as  the  Independents.  In  St.  Mary's,  North- 
gate,  the  Anabaptists  were  few  and  mean  in  quality. 
The  Quakers  were  numerous,  but  not  considerable  for 
estate.  In  the  diocese  of  Chichester,  the  little  market 
town  of  Petworth  is  mentioned  as  containing  50  or  60 
Nonconformists,  some  of  the  middle  sort,  others  in- 
ferior ;  Largesale  as  numbering  about  40,  yeomen  and 
labourers  ;  Stedham  as  having  sometimes  200,  includ- 
ing some  of  the  gentry.  In  the  diocese  of  Ely,  at  a 
place  called  Stetham,  mention  is  made  of  about  30  or 
40  who  assembled  by  stealth  and  in  the  night,  mean 
and  of  evil  fame,  who  had  arms  against  the  King.     Of 


1C70.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  3S7 

Doddington,  in  the  fen  country  of  Cambridgeshire,  it 
is  remarked,  that  there  were  no  Dissenters  in  the  parish, 
although  there  were  divers  of  them  in  other  places. 
The  promise  of  indulgence,  the  remissness  of  the  magis- 
trate, the  rumour  of  comprehension,  the  King's  con- 
nivance, and  the  sanction  of  grandees  at  Court, 
encouraged  their  hopes.  But  I  must  add,  there  is 
manifested  throughout  these  statistics  a  disposition,  on 
the  part  of  the  reporters,  to  exaggerate  the  extent  to 
which  Nonconformity  prevailed  ;  as,  for  example,  it  is 
said  of  the  houses  of  Mr.  Bond  and  Mr.  John  Chapman, 
of  Chard^-"  The  numbers  uncertain  but  always  very 
great,  sometimes  200,  300,  400,  500,  600,  and  often- 
times 700," — a  statement  which  inspires  caution  in 
perusing  the  whole  document. 

But  from  such  returns,  after  making  abatements  on 
the  score  of  exaggeration,  it  appears  that  Dissent  had 
by  no  means  been  crushed  by  the  violence  it  had  en- 
dured. Consequently  in  the  spring  of  1670,  a  new 
Bill  against  Conventicles  was  introduced  :  after  being 
amended  and  carried  by  the  Commons,  it  was  presented 
by  Sir  John  Brampston  to  the  Lords,  and  it  slowly 
passed  through  Committee ;  repeated  debates  occur- 
ring with  regard  to  its  provisions.  Seth  Ward,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  supported,  but  Wilkins,  Bishop  of  Chester, 
opposed  the  measure,  although  the  King,  without 
desiring  to  see  it  executed,  wished  to  see  it  passed, 
and  used  his  influence  with  the  last-named  prelate  to 
prevent  his  taking  any  part  in  the  business  ;  Wilkins, 
nevertheless,  courageously  insisted  upon  his  right  as 
a  Peer,  and  declined  to  withhold  either  his  vote  or  his 
voice.  The  Bill  did  not  pass  without  a  protest  being 
entered  on  the  Journals.*     This  Act, — so  commonly 

*  "  Lords' Journals,"  March  26th.    Referring  to  a  Royal  journey 


388  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Cuap.  X. 

described  as  a  revival  of  the  Conventicle  Act  of  1664 
that  it  is  necessary  to  point  out  the  fact  of  its  being  a 
new  piece  of  legislation — differed  from  the  preceding  in 
important  respects.  It  did  not  connect  the  penalty  of 
imprisonment  with  an  attendance  on  Conventicles,  nor 
was  the  amount  of  fines  fixed  on  so  high  a  scale.  It 
specified  for  the  first  offence,  instead  of  "  a  sum  not 
exceeding  five  pounds,"  the  reduced  fine  of  five  shillings  ; 
instead  of  imprisonment,  or  ten  pounds  for  the  second 
offence,  it  inflicted  a  penalty  of  only  ten  shillings  ;  and 
it  said  nothing  whatever  of  transportation,  or  of  aug- 
mented punishment  for  a  third  offence.  Still  it  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  earlier  legislation  in  other  respects  ; 
because  preachers  were  to  forfeit;^ 20  for  the  first,  and 
£a,o  for  the  second  breach  of  the  law.  Also  the  Act 
stimulated  informers,  by  promising  them  one-third  of 
the  fines  levied  through  their  diligence  and  industry;  it 
conferred  power  on  officers  to  break  open  houses,  except 
the  houses  of  Peers,  where  Conventicles  were  said  to  be 
assembled ;  and  it  imposed  a  fine  of  ^  5  on  any  constable, 
who,  being  aware  of  such  meetings,  neglected  to  give 
information  of  them,  and  a  fine  of  .£"100  on  any 
Justice  of  the  Peace  who  should  refuse  to  execute  the 
law.  It  declared  that  all  claims  should  be  construed 
most  largely  and  beneficially  for  the  suppression  of 
Conventicles.* 

at  this  period,  Dalrymple  says  :— "  It  was  intended  that  the  King 
and  the  Duke  should  have  gone  to  Dover  together  :  but  by  an 
accident,  Charles  went  alone.  For  all  the  Conventicles  were  to 
be  shut  up  in  London  upon  the  ensuing  Sunday,  and  the  Duke 
was  left  behind  to  guard  the  City  against  riots,  which  were  dreaded 
upon  that  occasion."     (Dalrymple's  "  Memoirs,"  Vol.  I.  31.) 

*  22  Car.  II.,  c.  I.  It  appears  from  a  letter  written  by  Col- 
bert to  Louis  XIV.  that  Charles  had  a  political  end  in  view  in 
connection  with  the  Act.  "  The  King  designs  to  make  the  last 
Act  of  Parliament  against  the  meetings  of  the  sectaries  be  ob- 


1670.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOy.  3S9 

Sheldon  was  delighted  at  the  enactment  of  this 
statute,  and  zealously  availed  himself  of  it.*  Ward 
and  Gunning,  at  the  same  time  distinguished  them- 
selves in  repressing  Dissent,  and  no  colouring  of  their 
conduct  can  hide  their  intolerance.  The  former,  it  is 
said,  made  the  diocese  of  Salisbury  too  hot  for  Non- 
conformists, and  drove  many  over  to  Holland  to  the 
great  detriment  of  trade  in  the  City  of  Salisbury.! 
Gunning,  whose  propensities  for  public  discussion  re- 
mained as  strong  as  ever,  sometimes  played  the  part 
of  a  magistrate,  and  sat  upon  the  bench  at  quarter 
sessions,  at  other  times  he  challenged  Dissenters  of  all 
sorts  to  engage  with  him  in  theological  tournaments.;}: 
Informers  were  now  let  loose  upon  all  kinds  of  inoffen- 
sive citizens,  and  the  severities  of  the  New  Conventicle 
Act  were  more  than  doubled  by  connecting  with  them 
the  execution  of  earlier  statutes.  No  less  a  person 
than  Dr.  Manton,  after  being  discovered  at  a  house  in 
the  Piazza  of  Covent  Garden,  holding  a  religious  service, 
had  the  Oxford  Oath  tendered  to  him,  and  for  refusing 
to  take  it,  was  committed  a  prisoner  to  the  Gatehouse. 

Of  all  sufferers  the  Quakers  suffered  most,  because 
they  were  the  most  persistent  and  resolute  in  continu- 
ing their  meetings,  because  when  officers  were  on  their 
way  to  seize  them  they  would  not  escape,  and  further, 
because  they  would  pay  no  fines,  not  even  gaol  fees, 
nor  offer  any  petition  to  be  set  at  liberty.  Such  people 
occasioned  the  greatest  perplexity  to  magistrates  and 

served  ;  and  he  hopes  that  their  disobedience  will  give  him  the 
easier  means  of  increasing  the  force  of  his  troops  and  coming 
speedily  to  the  end  he  proposes."  6th  June,  1670.  (Dalrymple's 
*'  Memoirs,"  Vol.  III.,  App.  60.) 

*  See  Wilkins'  "  Conciha,"  IV.  589. 

t  See  Pope's  "  Life  of  Ward,"  67,  69. 

%  Calamy,  II.  333. 


390  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

the  Government,  and  completely  wore  out  their  patience, 
thus  ultimately  gaining  their  own  point  by  an  invincible 
resistance  under  the  form  of  perfect  passivity.  The 
famous  trial,  in  the  month  of  August,  1670,  of  two 
friends,  William  Penn  and  William  Mead,  affords  an 
example  of  the  injustice  and  oppression  which  this 
remarkable  sect  had  to  endure,  and  also  of  the  sym- 
pathy with  them  in  their  wrongs  which  they  inspired 
in  the  breasts  of  their  fellow-subjects.  These  two 
gentlemen  were  accused  of  holding  a  tumultuous 
assembly  in  the  public  streets,  simply  because  they 
preached  in  the  open  air,  and  they  were  fined  forty 
marks  each,  in  consequence  of  not  pulling  off  their  hats 
in  court.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  to  which  the 
court  objected,  and  for  persistence  in  their  own  course, 
the  jurymen  were  fined  forty  marks  apiece,  and  were 
imprisoned  until  they  should  pay  the  amount.  After- 
wards they  were  discharged  by  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus, 
their  commitments  being  pronounced,  in  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas,  to  be  totally  illegal.* 

It  may  safely  be  asserted  that,  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  after  the  time  when  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
came  into  force,  except  for  the  short  space  presently  to 
be  described,  there  occurred  not  any  period,  when 
persecution,  in  some  form  or  other,  did  not  disturb  the 

*  The  trial  is  given  in  "  State  Trials  ;  "  and  in  Sewel's  "  History 
of  Quakers,"  II.  195  et  seq.  There  is  a  draft  letter  in  the  State 
Paper  Office,  ("  Entry  Book,"  June  29th,  1670,  addressed  to 
Reynolds,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  another  in  the  Lambeth 
Library,  dated  July  6th,  No.  DCLXXIV.  No.  24),  which  when 
brought  together  and  compared  show  how  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
was  evaded,  and  how  combined  efforts  were  made  after  the  second 
Conventicle  Act  had  passed  to  bring  the  Church  of  England  into 
correspondence  with  the  laws.  The  letters  relate  to  a  case  of 
irregularity  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  where  fanatics  were  said  to 
make  use  of  the  Church. 


1671.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  391 

Nonconformists  of  this  country  ;  yet  perhaps  it  would 
not  be  going  too  far  also  to  assert,  that  Avhen  persecu- 
tion reached  its  greatest  height,  there  were  some  of  the 
proscribed  who  successfully  asserted  their  liberty,  and, 
either  from  the  ignorance  or  from  the  connivance  of 
the  predominant  party,  escaped  the  rigours  of  the  law. 
Sixteen  months  after  the  new  statute  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  Conventicles  had  been  passed,  and  when  in 
many  directions  it  was  being  severely  enforced,  the 
Dissenters  at  Taunton,  not  only  met  together  for 
worship,  but  boldly  celebrated  a  festival  in  honour  of 
the  deliverance  of  the  place,  in  the  midst  of  the  Civil 
Wars,  under  their  illustrious  townsman  Robert.  Blake.* 
The  fall  of  Clarendon  had  been  succeeded  by  a 
Ministry  well  known  in  history  under  the  name  of  the 
Cabal.I  With  the  merely  political  conduct  of  the 
statesmen  indicated  by  that  word,  we  have  nothing  to 
do ;  their  policy  in  relation  to  ecclesiastical  affairs 
alone  demands  our  notice.  A  change  of  feeling  in  the 
upper  classes  towards  Nonconformists  ensued,  now 
that  Clarendon's  influence  had  been  withdrawn,  the 
virtues  of  distinguished  sufferers  became  better  known, 
and  rumours  about  plots  were  far  less  frequent.  This 
change  prepared  for  a  measure,  which,  unconstitutional 
as  to  its  basis,  was  liberal  in  its  operation.  To  found 
indulgence  upon  Royal  authority  alone,  and  not  upon 
an  Act  of  Parliament,  was  in  harmony  with  a  scheme 
for  the  exaltation  of  the  Crown  ;  but  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  measure  proceeded,  in  part  at  least, 
from  the  better  side  of  the  nature  of  the  Ministers, 
as  well  as  from  the  better   side  of  the  nature  of  the 

*  "State  Papers,"  Letter  from  James  Douch,  June  10,  1671. 
t  North  calls  it  •'  a  double-visaged  Ministry,  half  Papist  and 
half  Fanatic."     ("'  Lives,"  L  178.) 


392  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

Monarch.  The  previous  history  of  those  Ministers 
had  been  such  as  to  dispose  them  to  befriend  oppressed 
Nonconformists.  The  persons  of  whose  names  the 
initials  made  up  the  significant  appellation  just  men- 
tioned, were  Clifford,  Arlington,  Buckingham,  Ashley, 
and  Lauderdale.  The  last  three  had  themselves  been 
more  or  less  connected  with  Dissenters.  Buckingham, 
notwithstanding  his  irreligion  and  profligacy,  had  sym- 
pathized with  them  in  their  sufferings ;  Ashley  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Little  Parliament,  and  a  friend 
of  Oliver  Cromwell ;  and  Lauderdale  had  decidedly 
professed  Presbyterianism.  Memories  of  the  past 
would  dispose  these  politicians  to  be  favourable  to 
their  old  friends.  Clifford,  who  was  rough,  violent, 
ambitious,  unscrupulous,  and  yet  brave  and  generous, 
and  Arlington,  formerly  known  as  Sir  Henry  Bennet, 
a  man  timid  and  irresolute,  had  indeed  no  such 
reminiscences  as  their  colleagues,  and  had  begun  by 
this  time  to  veer  towards  Rome,  yet,  kindliness  of 
disposition,  which  seems  to  have  belonged  to  both 
these  statesmen,  probably  blended  itself  with  some 
design  for  promoting  the  interests  of  their  adopted 
Church. 

The  Cabal  Ministry  determined  upon  a  new  war 
with  Holland,  for  the  insults  and  injury  inflicted  by  the 
invasion  in  1666  could  not  be  forgotten,  and  the 
prosperity  of  a  republic  not  far  off,  especially  a  naval 
one,  appeared  odious  to  such  Englishmen  as  desired 
alike  absolute  monarchy  at  home,  and  an  undivided 
sovereignty  of  the  neighbouring  seas.  To  humble  a 
commercial  power  like  Holland,  would  also,  it  was 
thought,  improve  British  commerce  ;  and  of  course  a 
great  victory  would  strengthen  both  the  Ministry  and 
the  Crown.     The  war  with  Holland  began  in  March, 


1672.]         THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  393 

1672,  the  advantage  was  on  the  side  of  England  ;  and 
in  February,  1674,  Charles  informed  his  Parliament 
that  he  had  concluded  "  a  speedy,  honourable,"  and  he 
hoped,  "  a  lasting  peace."  *  With  a  prospect  of  this 
war,  the  Cabal  felt  it  expedient  to  conciliate  Dissenters, 
that  there  might  be  peace  at  home  whilst  there  was 
war  abroad,  and  that  the  sympathies  of  those  who  had 
before  leaned  towards  the  United  Provinces,  might  be 
bound  to  the  interests  of  their  own  empire.f  Prudence 
of  that  kind  united  itself  with  whatever  there  might  be 
of  generosity  in  the  Ministers  who  supported  the  King's 
new  measure,  but  it  should  be  stated  that  at  this 
moment,  when  the  Cabinet  were  looking  one  way, 
Sheldon  was  looking  another.  Whilst  the  chief 
Ministers  of  State  were  preparing  to  show  favour  to 
the  sects,  the  chief  Minister  of  the  Church  was  thinking 
only  of  checking  their  progress ;  yet,  to  his  credit  it 
should  be  noticed,  that  he  appears,  just  then,  as  one 
who  wished  to  promote  his  object  by  means  of  educa- 
tion, for  he  strongly  enforced  the  use  of  the  catechism  ;  % 
but,  to  his  discredit  it  must  also  be  remarked,  that  he 
still  showed  himself  wedded  to  a  coercive  policy,  by 
urging  proceedings  against  all  nonconforming  school- 
masters. 

Within  six  weeks  of  the  date  of  the  Archbishop's 
circular  respecting  education  upon  Church  principles, 
Charles  issued  his  famous  Declaration  of  Indulgence. 
Lord   Keeper  Bridgeman    refused  to   affix  the  Great 

*  "  Lords'  Journal,"  Feb.  11,  1674. 

t  The  measure  was,  in  Council,  moved  and  seconded  by  Clifford 
and  Ashley.     (Lingard,  XII.  10.) 

%  The  catechism,  says  Card  well  ("  Documentary  Annals,"  II. 
337),  was  probably  Dean  Newel's  small  catechism,  which  was 
printed  originally  in  1570,  and  was  generally  used  in  schools  down 
to  the  time  of  Strype.     (See  his  "  Life  of  Parker,"  II.  18.) 


394  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

Seal  to  it,  because,  in  his  opinion,  it  was  contrary  to 
the  laws  of  the  Constitution,  but  Ashley,  to  whom  the 
Great  Seal  was  transferred,  as  Lord  High  Chancellor, 
under  the  title  of  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  easily  supplied 
that  important  deficiency.*  "  Our  care  and  endeavours 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Rights  and  Interests  of  the 
Church,"  so  ran  the  document,  "  have  been  sufficiently 
manifested  to  the  world  by  the  whole  course  of  our 
Government  since  our  happy  Restoration,  and  by  the 
many  and  frequent  ways  of  coercion  that  we  have  used 
for  reducing  all  erring  or  dissenting  persons,  and  for 
composing  the  unhappy  differences  in  matters  of  Re- 
ligion, which  we  found  among  our  subjects  upon  our 
return.  But  it  being  evident  by  the  sad  experience  of 
twelve  years  that  there  is  very  little  fruit  of  all  those 
forcible  courses,  we  think  ourselves  obliged  to  make 
use  of  that  supreme  power  in  ecclesiastical  matters 
which  is  not  only  inherent  in  us,  but  hath  been  declared 
and  recognized  to  be  so  by  several  Statutes  and  Acts 
of  Parliament ;  and  therefore  we  do  now  accordingly 
issue  this  our  Declaration,  as  well  for  the  quieting  the 
minds  of  our  good  subjects  in  these  points,  for  inviting 
strangers  in  this  conjuncture  to  come  and  live  under  us, 
and  for  the  better  encouragement  of  all  to  a  cheerful 
following  of  their  trade  and  callings,  from  whence  we 
hope,  by  the  blessing  of  God  to  have  many  good  and 
happy  advantages  to  our  Government ;  as  also  for 
preventing  for  the  future  the  danger  that  might  other- 
wise arise  from  private  meetings  and  seditious  Con- 
venticles." t 

The  Declaration,  after  recognizing  the    established 

*  Burnet,  I.  307. 

t  It  is  dated  March  15th,  and  is  printed  in  Bunyan's  "  Works," 
edited  by  Offor,  III.,  "  Introduction,"  21. 


1G72.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  39S 

religion  of  the  country,  directed  the  immediate  sus- 
pension of  all  penal  laws  against  Nonconformists,  and 
provided  for  the  allowance  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
places  of  worship,  to  be  used  by  such  as  did  not  con- 
form. None  were  to  meet  in  any  building  until  it 
should  be  certified  ;  and  until  the  teacher  of  the  con- 
gregation should  be  approved  by  the  King.  All  kinds 
of  Nonconformists,  except  recusants  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  were  to  share  in  the  indulgence,  but 
the  preaching  of  sedition,  or  of  anything  derogatory  to- 
the  Church  of  England  was  forbidden,  under  penalties 
of  extreme  severity.*  How  was  the  Declaration  re- 
garded 1  Politicians  looked  at  the  subject  from  their 
own  point  of  view,  and  it  is  curious  and  instructive  to 
consult  a  paper,  written  some  time  afterwards,  in  which 
answers  are  given  to  legal  objections  against  the 
measure.  It  was  objected  that  the  King  has  not  power 
to  suspend  the  laws  of  the  land,  he  being,  by  his  coro- 
nation oath,  obliged  to  see  the  laws  duly  executed,  and 
not  infringed.  The  reply  is  that  the  King  has  both  an 
ordinary  and  extraordinary  power,  and  that,  by  the 
latter,  he  may  mitigate  and  suspend  the  enactments  of 
Parliament,  in  support  of  which  position  reference  is. 
made  to  the  practice  of  the  Roman  Emperor,  who 
dispensed  with  the  Imperial  laws  by  tolerating  Arians, 
Novatians,  and  Donatists. 

It  was  objected,  that  the  law  against  Conventicles 
had  a  penalty  annexed,  which  was  to  be  paid,  not  to 
the  King,  but  to  the  informer,  and  therefore  the  King 
could  not  dispense  with  it.  To  this  it  is  answered, 
that  the  King's  ecclesiastical  supremacy  being  reserved 
by  the  Act,  such  supremacy  sufficed  to  authorize  what 
he  did  in  this  matter.    But  to  give  a  particular  solution 

*  "Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  515. 


396  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Cuap.  X. 

the  writer  deals  in  some  ingenious  sophistries  not  worth 
repeating.  The  objection,  that  a  dispensing  power  is 
new  in  England,  is  disposed  of  by  the  remark  that  the 
form  is  new,  but  not  the  thing  itself.  Ecclesiastical 
laws  had  been  frequently  changed  by  proclamation  in 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VL  It  having 
been  alleged  that  it  was  unbecoming  for  the  King  to 
annul  his  own  acts  performed  in  giving  the  Royal 
assent  to  laws  against  Conventicles,  the  rejoinder  is, 
that  the  King  did  not  annul,  but  only  suspend  his  own 
act ;  and  if  there  be  anything  of  weakness  in  this,  His 
Majesty  showed  it  in  common  with  Constantine,  Valen- 
tinian,  Theodosius,  Gratian,  and  Charles  V.* 

Some  Episcopalians  disposed  to  favour  Charles' 
policy,  asked  whether  subjects  might  not  comply,  in 
many  things  inexpedient,  and  even  prejudicial,  if  the 
King  pressed  the  command,  and  whether  they  might 
not  consent  to  the  abrogating  of  penal  laws  in  support 
of  the  Church,  rather  than  provoke  the  Royal  dis- 
pleasure }  t  But  toleration  did  not  meet  the  wishes  of 
the  Presbyterians,  some  of  them  had  refused  it  to 
others,  and  now  they  did  not  care  to  accept  it  for 
themselves.  Desiring  comprehension,  meaning  by  that 
"  any  tolerable  state  of  unity  with  the  public  ministry," 
they  looked  on  toleration  as  opening  a  way  for  the 
advance  of  Popery ;  and  they  believed  that  wherever 
indulgence  might  begin,  in  Popery  it  would  end.  They 
apprehended  also  that  it  would  contribute  to  the  per- 
manence of  Protestant   dissensions,  whereas  compre- 

*  "An  answer  unto  certain  objections  formed  against  the  pro- 
ceedings of  His  Majesty  to  suspend  the  laws  against  Conventicles 
by  His  declaration,  March  15,  1672."  ("State  Papers,  Dom.," 
1673,  bundle  190,  fol,  164.) 

t  See  the  Bishop  of  Durham's  cjueries.  (Cosin's  "  Works," 
IV.  384.) 


1G72.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:  397 

hension  would  unite  and  consolidate  Protestant  interests  ; 
nor  had  they  ceased  to  value  parish  order,  and  to  believe 
that  such  order  would  be  overthrown,  if  people  were 
allowed  to  enjoy  separate  places  of  worship  wherever 
they  pleased.  On  this  ground  the  Presbyterians  con- 
fessed themselves  to  be  in  a  dilemma,  being  forced 
either  to  become  Independents  in  practice,  or  to  remain 
as  they  were,  in  silence  and  in  suffering  *  Some  also 
objected  to  the  unconstitutional  character  of  the  King's 
proceeding,  and  looked  upon  it  as  pregnant  with  politi- 
cal, no  less  than  with  ecclesiastical  mischief,  others, 
wearied  with  long  years  of  persecution,  felt  glad  to 
avail  themselves  of  liberty  from  whatever  quarter  it 
arose.  It  is  probable  that  some  troubled  themselves 
not  at  all  with  the  constitutional  question,  and  it  is 
certain  that  others,  who  did  apprehend  the  political 
bearing  of  the  measure,  and  who  also  dreaded  the 
progress  of  Popery,  considered  nevertheless,  that  to 
avail  themselves  of  a  right  to  which  they  were  entitled 
on  grounds  of  natural  justice,  was  simply  reasonable, 
and  involved  no  approbation  of  either  the  actual  manner, 
or  the  suspected  design  of  the  bestowment. 

The  Independents,  who  had  long  given  up  hopes  of 
comprehension,  who  set  no  value  on  parish  discipline, 
and  who  had  only  asked  for  freedom  to  worship  God 
according  to  their  consciences,  were,  for  the  most  part, 
prepared  to  accept  what  appeared  to  them  as  a  boon, 
without  feeling  any  scruple  in  relation  to  its  political 
aspects.f     The  Court  encouraged  an  approach  to  the 

*  Baxter's  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  99.  "  Life  of  Philip  Henry," 
128. 

t  A  short  treatise  on  the  lawfulness  of  the  Oath  of  Supremacy 
and  the  power  of  the  King  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  by  Philip  Nye, 
\yas  published  in  1683.  Nye  died  in  1672,  and  when  this  treatise 
was  written  does  not  appear  on  the  title  page.     He  ascribes  to 


398  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

throne,  of  Nonconformists  disposed  to  return  thanks 
for  the  indulgence.  The  Presbyterians  came  in  a  body, 
helped  by  Dr.  Manton,  who,  in  their  name,  expressed 
hearty  gratitude.*  Dr.  Owen  also  presented  a  loyal 
address,  in  which  he  expressed  the  joy  of  the  Inde- 
pendents in  declaring  their  loyalty ;  not  only  as  that 
loyalty  rested  upon  grounds  common  to  all  his  subjects, 
but  also  as  it  arose  from  what  His  Majesty  had  just 
done  in  reference  to  liberty  of  conscience.  Owen 
humbly  prayed  for  the  continuance  of  the  Royal  favour, 
assuring  the  King  of  the  intercessions  of  Independents 
in  his  behalf,  that  God  would  continue  His  presence 
to  him,  and  preserve  him  in  counsels  and  thoughts  of 
indulgence.! 

Applications  poured  in,  and  licenses  were  granted  in 
abundance.  Thomas  Doolittle,  an  eminent  Presbyterian 
minister,  obtained  one  ;  and  for  years  afterwards  it 
might  be  seen,  framed  and  glazed,  hanging  in  the 
vestry  of  the  meeting-house  where  he  preached,  in 
Monkwell  Street.:}:  Availing  themselves  of  the  Royal 
permission,  several  merchants  united  in  the  establish- 

the  magistrate,  power  "  to  send  out  preachers,  to  urge  and  con- 
strain men  to  hear.  ...  A  coercive  power  of  this  nature  is  placed 
in  no  other  hand  but  his."  It  is  strange  indeed  to  find  an  Inde- 
pendent writing  thus.  After  exalting  the  civil  power,  and  en- 
forcing the  duty  of  submitting  to  Royal  Supremacy,  the  author, 
in  a  postscript,  speaks  of  His  Majesty's  most  gracious  Declara- 
tion ;  and  seemingly,  without  any  idea  that  it  could  be  incon- 
sistent to  accept  the  indulgence,  maintains  that  there  is  nothing 
in  the  opinions  of  Independents  that  "  should  render  us,  in  any 
sort,  incapable  of  receiving  the  fruit  and  benefit  of  the  King's 
majesty's  favour  and  indulgence,  promised  to  tender  consciences." 
Probably  Nye  wrote  this  piece  just  about  the  time  when  the 
indulgence  was  issued — seven  months  before  his  death.  Nye's 
tract  (with  many  others,  which  I  have  found  very  instructive)  is 
preserved  in  Dr.  Williams'  Library. 

*  Burnet,  I.  308.  f  Orme's  "  Life  of  Owen,"  272. 

%  Wilson's  "Hist,  of  Dissenting  Churches,"  III.  187. 


1G72.]         THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  399 

ment,  at  Pinners'  Hall,  of  a  Lecture,  to  be  delivered 
by  select  preachers,  including  Richard  Baxter.  Build- 
ings were  constructed  amidst  the  ruins  left  by  the 
London  fire,  and  some  arose  on  the  other  side  the 
Thames.  In  the  latter  neighbourhood  four  Presby- 
terians were  licensed,  one  was  in  St.  Mary  Overy's, 
another  in  Deadman's  Place,  St.  Saviour's.  Lide- 
pendents.  Baptists,  and  others,  to  the  number  of  six, 
were  registered  for  Southwark  and  Lambeth ;  some 
only  by  name,  others  for  specified  places.  David 
Clarkson  asked  leave  to  preach  in  "  a  house  belonging 
to  John  Beamish  in  Mortlake,"  to  both  Presbyterians 
and  Baptists ;  and  several  licenses  were  granted  to 
other  ministers  in  Surrey.  John  Bunyan  was  allowed 
to  teach  a  congregation  in  the  house  of  Josias  Roughed 
at  Bedford  ;  and  numerous  individuals  and  numerous 
dwellings  in  the  City  of  Norwich  were  enrolled  on  the 
certified  list,  as  many  as  four  different  houses  in  one 
parish,  besides  many  more  in  other  parishes,  being 
enumerated.  Oliver  Heywood,  "of  the  Presbyterian 
persuasion,"  received  permission  to  use  a  room  or 
rooms,  in  his  own  house,  in  the  parish  of  Halifax,  in 
the  County  of  York  ;  and  Philip  Henry,  of  Malpas, 
Plintshire,  notwithstanding  his  scruples  on  the  subject, 
accepted  the  same  kind  of  permission.*  These  are 
only  a  few  instances,  showing  the  variety  and  extent 
of  the  rescripts  which  threw  the  Royal  shield  for  a 
time  over  harassed  Nonconformists.  As  many  as  three 
thousand  five  hundred  licenses  are  reckoned  to  have 
been  .granted  within  the  space   of  ten  months.     If  it 

*  Bunyan's  license  is  given  in  Offer's  preface  to  Banyan's 
"  Works."  Numbers  of  entries  from  the  Register,  and  copies  of 
applications  and  licenses  have  been  printed  in  local  histories  of 
Dissent.  The  original  documents  are  preserved  in  the  Record 
Office. 


400  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

be  supposed  that  the  places  of  worship  then  licensed 
were  generally  at  all  like  chapels  in  the  present  day, 
a  most  exaggerated  and  erroneous  idea  will  be  formed 
of  the  extent  of  Dissent  ;  in  point  of  fact  many  of  the 
places  of  worship  were  but  small  rooms  in  private 
houses,  within  a  short  distance  of  each  other  ;  never- 
theless, there  must  have  been  a  large  number  of  people 
professing  Nonconformity,  to  require  so  many  licenses, 
and  it  should  be  remembered  that  a  portion  of  the 
nonconforming  class  did  not  feel  prepared  to  accept 
liberty  proffered  in,  what  they  considered,  an  uncon- 
stitutional way.  So  formidable  did  the  number  of  Free 
Churches  begin  to  appear,  that  one  of  the  Bishops, 
writing  to  Sir  Joseph  Williamson,  exclaimed,  "  These 
licensed  persons  increase  strangely.  The  orthodox 
poor  clergy  are  out  of  heart.  Shall  nothing  be  done 
to  support  them  against  the  Presbyterians  who  grow 
and  multiply  faster  than  the  other  } "  * 

In  connection  with  the  indulgence  and  the  thanks 
returned  to  the  King  by  the  Presbyterians,  Burnet  re- 
lates that  an  order  was  given  "  to  pay  a  yearly  pension 
of  fifty  pounds  to  most  of  them,  and  of  a  hundred 
pounds  a  year  to  the  chief  of  the  party."  He  says 
further,  that  Baxter  "  sent  back  his  pension,  and  would 
not  touch  it,  but  most  of  them  took  it."  Burnet  relates 
this  on  the  authority  of  Stillingfleet,  from  whom  he 
received  the  story ;  adding,  "  in  particular  he  told  me 
that  Pool,  who  wrote  the  '  Synopsis  of  the  Critics,' 
confessed  to  him  that  he  had  had  fifty  pounds  for  two 
years."  This  historian  remarks,  "Thus  the  Court  hired 
them  to  be  silent,  and  the  greatest  part  of  them  were 
so,    and    very    compliant."  j       It    is    remarkable,    that 

*  "  State  Papers,''  1672. 

t  "  Hist,  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  308. 


1672.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  401 

though  there  are  several  passages  in  Baxter's  life,  in 
which  he  mentions  the  fact  of  sums  of  money  being 
offered  him,  and  the  way  in  which  he  treated  the  offers, 
he  makes  no  reference  to  any  overture  of  pecuniary 
assistance  from  the  Court.  Some  reference  to  it 
we  might  have  expected,  had  such  an  overture  been 
made  ;  but  that  Baxter  in  that  case  would  have  declined 
to  accept  any  grant,  is  quite  in  accordance  with  his 
character,  and  with  his  wish  to  be  entirely  indepen- 
dent of  the  King.  Burnet's  statements,  given  on  the 
authority  of  conversations  held  some  time  before,  were 
intended  by  him  to  be  accurate,  but  they  are  not 
always  reliable  :  in  this  case,  however,  whatever  doubt 
may  rest  on  his  statements  as  to  Baxter,  there  seems  no 
reason  for  disbelieving  what  he  says  respecting  Pool. 
Dr.  Calamy,  from  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
events  of  the  period,  would,  we  should  infer,  have  been 
able  to  disprove  Burnet's  statement,  had  it  been  alto- 
gether untrue,  but  Calamy  does  not  contradict  the 
assertion  as  to  the  payment  of  money,  rather  he  con- 
firms it.  After  quoting  from  Burnet,  that  "most  of 
them  took  it,"  he  adds,  "  I  cannot  see  why  they  should 
not ;  "  he  resents,  however,  Burnet's  remarks  about  the 
Presbyterians  being  silent  and  compliant ;  but  he 
states  on  the  next  page  that  he  was  not  forgetful  of  Dr. 
Owen's  having  received  one  thousand  guineas  from 
Charles  II.  to  distribute  amongst  Dissenters  ;  *  for  the 

*  "Life  of  Calamy,"  11.469,470.  I  do  not  observe  that  Mr. 
Orme,  in  his  "  Life  of  Owen,"  notices  this  statement. 

In  the  vohime  pubhshed  by  the  Camden  Society  entitled 
"  Moneys  received  and  paid  for  secret  services  of  Charles  II.  and 
James  II.,"  it  appears  that  a  physician  who  was  in  the  confidence 
of  the  Presbyterian  party,  and  who  often  represented  them,  was 
in  the  pay  of  the  Court.  For  this  reference,  and  other  valuable 
suggestions  on  the  subject,  I  am  indebted  to  the  Rev.  R.  B. 
Aspland. 

VOL.    III.  2  D 


402  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

receipt  of  which  he  incurred  reflections  afterwards,  as 
Calamy  thought,  very  undeservedly.  There  seems  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  at  this  time  the  Crown  rendered 
pecuniary  assistance  to  Nonconformist  ministers,  and 
that  some  of  the  leading  brethren  acted  as  almoners 
of  the  Royal  bounty  to  others.  But,  however  the 
acceptance  of  it  might  be  approved  by  some,  it  was 
condemned  by  others,  and  it  would,  by  the  latter,  be 
naturally  enough  counted  as  "  hush  money  ; "  that  it 
really  produced  that  effect,  however,  there  is  not  a  tittle 
of  evidence,  and  in  itself  it  appears  very  improbable. 
Men  who  had  resigned  their  livings,  and  all  the  honours 
of  the  Established  Church,  for  conscience'  sake,  were 
not  likely  now  to  be  bribed  by  an  occasional  remittance 
of  a  hundred  or  of  fifty  pounds  ;  in  some  cases  the  sum 
must  have  been  much  smaller. 

To  this  incident  in  connection  with  the  indulgence 
may  be  added  an  interesting  episode,  which  in  one  of 
its  particulars,  falls  into  the  same  connection.  After 
his  romantic  adventures  at  Boscobel  in  165 1,  Charles 
reached  the  little  town  of  Brighthelmstone,  and  there 
engaged  a  fisherman  to  take  him  over  to  the  coast  of 
France.  The  captain  and  the  mate  alone  were  in  the 
secret  that  the  boat  carried,  not  Csesar  indeed,  but  the 
heir  of  England's  crown,  with  all  his  fortunes  ;  and 
when  they  reached  their  destination,  the  mate  con- 
veyed the  Prince  ashore  upon  his  shoulders.  The  boat, 
in  after  days,  when  the  Restoration  had  changed  the 
destiny  of  the  Stuarts,  lay  moored  by  the  stairs  at 
Whitehall,  a  memento  of  its  Royal  master's  deliver- 
ance ;  and  the  captain,  whose  name  was  Nicholas  Tat- 
tersall,  after  having  enjoyed  an  annuity  of  ^100  a  year, 
slept  with  his  fathers  in  the  churchyard  of  the  town  in 
which  he  had  lived,  and  was  buried  beneath  a  slab  of 


1G72.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  403 

black  marble,  still  existing,  with  a  scarcely  legible 
inscription.  The  mate,  who  set  the  King  on  dry- 
land, and  whose  name  was  Richard  Carver,  became 
a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  When  nearly 
twenty  years  had  rolled  away,  this  transformed  mariner 
made  his  appearance  one  day  in  the  month  of  January, 
1670,  at  the  doors  of  the  palace,  and  obtained  admission 
to  the  King's  presence.  Time,  the  rough  wear  and 
tear  of  a  seaman's  life,  and  the  assumption  of  a  Quaker 
garb,  had  altered  the  visitor  since  His  Majesty  saw 
him  last,  but  with  that  faculty  of  recognition,  which  is 
a  princely  instinct,  he  remembered  the  man  at  once, 
and  reminded  the  sailor  of  several  occurrences  in  the 
vessel  during  his  eventful  voyage.  Charles  had  been 
annoyed  by  people  who  had  shown  him  kindness  in 
adversity,  coming  or  writing  to  Whitehall  for  some 
substantial  acknowledgment  of  obligation,  and  he 
wondered  that  Carver  had  not  come  before  to  ask  for 
assistance.  In  reply  to  some  expression  of  that  feel- 
ing, the  Quaker  told  the  King  that  "he  was  satisfied, 
in  that  he  had  peace  and  satisfaction  in  himself,  that 
he  did  wJiat  he  did  to  relieve  a  man  in  distress,  and  now 
he  desired  nothing  of  him  but  that  he  would  set  Friends 
at  liberty  who  were  great  sufferers."  Carver  then  pro- 
ceeded to  inform  His  Majesty  that  he  had  a  paper  in 
his  hand  containing  1 10  names  of  Quakers,  who  had 
been  in  prison  above  six  years,  and  could  be  released 
only  on  Royal  authority.  Charles  took  the  paper, 
and  said  it  was  a  long  list,  that  people  of  that  kind,  if 
liberated,  would  get  into  prison  again  in  a  month's 
time,  and  that  country  gentlemen  had  complained  to 
him  of  their  being  so  much  troubled  by  Quakers. 
Touched,  however,  by  the  remembrance  of  long  gone 
years,  whilst  a  gracious  smile  played  on  the  flexible 


404  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chai-.  X. 

features  of  his  swarthy  face,  he  said  to  Carver,  he  would 
release  six.  Carver,  not  thinking  that  the  release  of 
six  poor  Quakers  was  equivalent  to  a  King's  ransom, 
determined  to  approach  the  Royal  presence  again,  and 
now  took  with  him  another  Friend,  Thomas  Moore. 
"  The  King  was  very  loving  to  them.  He  had  a  fair 
and  free  opportunity  to  open  his  mind  to  the  King, 
and  the  King  promised  to  do  (more)  for  him,  but 
willed  him  to  wait  a  month  or  two  longer."  What 
became  of  this  sailor,  who  nobly  looked  on  the  preser- 
vation of  the  King's  life  simply  as  relieving  a  man  in 
distress,  we  do  not  know ;  but  Moore,  whom  he  intro- 
puced  to  the  Monarch,  continued  to  make  earnest 
appeals  to  Royalty  on  behalf  of  imprisoned  Friends. 
In  these  attempts  he  received  assistance  from  George 
Whitehead,  another  eminent  name  in  the  annals  of 
Quakerism  ;  and  when,  two  years  afterwards,  there 
appeared  the  Royal  decree,  which  we  have  described, 
there  also  occurred  the  following  incident,  which 
forms  a  notable  link  in  a  wonderful  chain  of  Divine 
providences.  The  King,  who  felt  now  more  than  ever 
a  special  regard  for  Quakers,  kept  his  word,  and  on  the 
29th  of  March,  1672,  thirteen  days  after  the  date  of  the 
Declaration  of  Indulgence,  a  circular  letter  was  sent  to 
the  Sheriffs  of  England  and  Wales,  requiring  from  them 
a  calendar  of  the  names,  times,  and  causes  of  commit- 
ment of  all  the  Quakers  confined  within  their  gaols. 
The  returns  from  the  Sheriffs  came  in  due  order  before 
the  Privy  Council  in  reply  to  the  circular,  when  His 
Majesty  declared  that  he  would  pardon  all  those  persons 
called  Quakers  then  in  prison  for  any  offence  which 
they  had  committed  against  him,  and  not  to  the  injury  of 
other  persons  :  471  names  were  included  in  the  pardon.* 

*  It  is  stated  that  the  usual  fees  to  certain  officers  in  connection 
with  this  business  were  in  some  cases  remitted. 


1672.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  405 

Whitehead,  who  co-operated  with  Moore,  the  friend 
of  Richard  Carver,  to  whom  he  owed  his  introduction 
to  the  King,  was  a  large-hearted  man,  and  when  other 
Dissenters  saw  what  he  had  done,  and  soHcited  his 
assistance  to  procure  the  Hberation  of  another  class 
of  religious  prisoners,  he  readily  assisted,  and  recom- 
mended that  they  should  petition  His  Majesty  ;  adding, 
that  their  being  of  different  judgments  did  not  abate 
his  charity  towards  them.     The  advice  was  taken. 

John  Bunyan,  with  a  number  of  others  unknown  to 
fame,  encouraged  by  the  Quakers,  asked  to  be  set  at 
liberty.  The  document  containing  this  prayer,  came 
before  the  Privy  Council  on  the  8th  of  May,  1672,  and 
on  the  17th,  Sheldon  being  present,  it  was  ordered 
that,  as  these  persons  had  been  committed  "for  not 
conforming  to  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  for  being  at  unlawful  meetings,"  and 
for  no  other  offence,  the  Attorney  General  be  "  autho- 
rized and  required  to  insert  them  into  the  general 
pardon  to  be  passed  for  the  Quakers."  The  pardon  is 
dated  the  13th  of  September  ;  and  second  on  the  list 
of  sufferers  in  Bedford  Jail  appears  the  name  of  "  John 
Bunnion,"  who  in  common  with  490  others,  received 
forgiveness  for  "  all,  and  all  manner  of  crimes,  trans- 
gressions, offences  of  premunire,  unlawful  Conventicles, 
contempts,  and  ill  behaviour  whatsoever."  *     Our  great 


*  The  particulars  respecting  Carver  and  Moore  are  taken  from 
letters  by  Ellis  Hookes  written  to  the  wife  of  George  Fox,  dated 
January,  1670,  and  preserved  in  the  Records  of  the  Quakers' 
Meeting  House,  Devonshire  Square.  The  letters,  or  the  sub- 
stance of  them,  with  entries  in  the  Council  Books,  are  given  by 
Mr.  Offor,  in  his  introduction  to  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress." 

I  have  rested  on  the  authority  of  so  accurate  a  copyist  without 
inspecting  the  originals.  The  statement,  often  repeated,  that 
Bunyan  owed  his  liberty  to  Bishop  Barlow  is  quite  a  mistake. 


4o6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  X. 

allegorist  owed  his  deliverance  to  the  intervention  of 
Friends,  and  I  do  not  wonder  to  find  that  afterwards 
an  end  came  to  those  unseemly  controversies  which 
had  been  waged  between  him  and  the  disciples  of 
Geors2fe  Fox. 


1673.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  407 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Tenth  Session  of  Charles'  Second  Parliament 
opened  on  the  4th  of  February,  1673.  His  Majesty's 
Speech  glanced  at  the  Indulgence,  as  having  produced 
a  good  effect  by  producing  peace  at  home  when  there 
was  war  abroad,  and  as  not  intended  to  favour  the 
Papists,  inasmuch  as  they  had  freedom  of  religion  only 
"  in  their  own  houses,  without  any  concourse  of  others." 
The  oration  of  Shaftesbury,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  in 
like  manner  touched  upon  the  same  points,  and  he 
endeavoured  to  vindicate  the  measure  from  miscon- 
struction, and  asserted  the  success  by  which  it  had 
been  attended.  But  the  well-known  character  of  the 
Cabal,  and  the  now  equally  well-known  character  of 
the  King,  whose  leaning  towards  Popery  had  become 
apparent,  inspired  the  Commons  with  sentiments  which 
set  them  in  opposition  to  the  Royal  policy.  As  Tory 
and  Whig,  Conservative  and  Radical  are  terms  now 
indicating  parties  in  the  State  divided  upon  great 
questions,  so  the  Court  party  and  the  Country  party 
were  corresponding  appellations  at  the  period  under 
review.  But  as  now,  so  then,  parties,  at  times,  errati- 
cally burst  into  circles  not  coincident  with  their  pro- 
fessed principles,  and  thus  a  door  was  opened  for 
bandying  to  and  fro  violent  recriminations,  on  the  score 
of  inconsistency.     The  Court  party,  led  by  the  Cabal 


4o8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

through  introducing  and  supporting  a  Grant  of  In- 
dulgence, seemed  to  be  favouring  that  very  Noncon- 
formity which,  in  1662  and  in  subsequent  years,  they 
had  endeavoured  to  crush  ;  and  the  Country  party, 
through  resistance  of  an  usurped  prerogative,  came  to 
look  like  enemies  of  that  religious  freedom  whose  last 
hopes  had  once  been  thought  to  lie  within  their  bosoms. 
But  in  fact  the  inconsistency  on  both  sides  is  more 
apparent  than  real,  for  still  the  one  party  aimed  at  the 
establishment  of  despotism,  and  the  other  aimed  at 
the  advancement  of  liberty.  The  ends  of  the  two  were 
still  the  same  ;  they  only  changed  the  means.  The 
Court  had  carried  all  before  it  at  the  time  of  the 
Restoration.  It  then  appeared  as  the  upholder  of  the 
Throne,  of  the  Church,  of  the  Prayer  Book,  of  old 
English  institutions  and  customs.  In  the  fervour  of 
reborn  loyalty,  amidst  a  flush  of  feudal  enthusiasm 
on  the  return  of  an  exiled  chief,  and  completely  borne 
away  with  joy  attendant  on  the  revival  of  ancient  and 
endeared  customs,  the  people  had  rallied  around  the 
King's  party,  applauding  it  to  the  echo.  Now  a 
change  came.  Admiration  of  Charles  II.  had  begun 
to  subside,  his  character  was  seen  through,  his  pro- 
fligacy was  notorious,  his  irreligion  excited  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  sober-minded,  his  profusion  touched 
the  pockets  of  the  economical,  and  his  dependence 
upon  France  quickened  the  jealousy  of  true  patriots. 
The  Cabal  and  the  Court  were  found  to  be  in  league 
with  the  Crown  for  purposes  inimical  to  the  Common- 
wealth, therefore  the  nation  expressed  its  deep  un- 
easiness, and  as  seats  in  Parliament,  now  in  its  twelfth 
year,  fell  vacant  through  the  death  of  members,  candi- 
dates elected  to  fill  vacancies  were  those  pledged  to  the 
Country  party.     That  party  in  the  House  of  Commons 


1G73.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  409 

by  degrees  became  predominant,  and  the  King  and 
Court  received  unpleasant  proofs  that  they  could  no 
longer  carry  things  as  they  had  done,  with  a  high  hand. 
Under  these  circumstances,  at  an  early  sitting,  on  the 
8th  of  February,  a  debate  arose  upon  the  subject  of  the 
Declaration.  Sir  Thomas  Lee,  Mr.  Garroway,  and  Sir 
Thomas  Meres,  the  "bell-wethers"  of  the  Country  part)^ 
as  they  were  called,  supported  by  Colonel  Birch,  the 
Commonwealth's-man,  and  others,*  attacked  the  Royal 
proceeding,  which  was  vindicated  by  members  on  the 
other  side.  The  Country  party,  on  the  lOth,  argued 
that  the  Declaration  was  unconstitutional  ;  that,  accord- 
ing to  this  method,  the  King  might  claim  the  power  of 
changing  the  religion  of  the  country,  that  toleration 
ought  to  be  granted,  but  only  by  Act  of  Parliament, 
and  that  the  document  just  issued,  in  the  name  of  the 
Monarch,  would  upset  forty  Acts  of  Parliament  no  way 
constitutionally  repealable,  except  by  the  authority 
which  had  created  them.  In  the  course  of  the  debate 
a  member,  addressing  a  conspicuous  Nonconformist  in 
the  House,  remarked,  "  Why,  Mr,  Love,  you  are  a  dis- 
senter yourself;  it  is  very  ungrateful  that  you  who 
receive  the  benefit  should  object  against  the  manner." 
"  I  am  a  Dissenter,"  he  replied,  "  and  thereby  unhappily 
obnoxious  to  the  law,  and  if  you  catch  me  in  the  corn 
you  may  put  me  in  the  pound.  The  law  against 
the  Dissenters  I  should  be  glad  to  see  repealed  by  the 
same  authority  that  made  it,  but  while  it  is  a  law, 
the  King  cannot  repeal  it  by  proclamation  :  and  I  had 

*  The  Country  party  consisted  chiefly  of  Lords  Russell  and 
Cavendish,  Sir  W.  Coventry,  Colonel  Birch,  Mr.  Powle,  and  Mr. 
Littleton.  Lee  and  Garroway  were  suspected  characters.  Marvell 
says  : — 

"  Till  Lee  and  Garroway  shall  bribes  reject." 


4IO  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XT. 

much  rather  see  the  Dissenters  suffer  by  the  rigour  of 
the  law,  though  I  suffer  with  them,  than  see  all  the 
laws  of  England  trampled  under  the  foot  of  the  pre- 
rogative as  in  this  example."  *  The  Court  faction 
stood  on  its  defence.  Secretary  Coventry  maintained 
that  the  King  did  not  intend  to  violate  the  laws, 
that  exceptional  circumstances  required  exceptional 
proceedings,  that  the  master  of  a  ship  has  power  in 
a  storm  to  throw  goods  overboard,  though  no  such 
power  belongs  to  him  when  the  waters  are  calm. 
Finch,  the  Attorney-General,  asserted  the  dangerous 
doctrine,  that,  as  the  King  was  Head  of  the  Church, 
and  as  it  was  the  interest  of  the  nation  to  have 
a  temporal  and  not  a  spiritual  Pope,  His  Majesty 
might  dispense  with  the  laws  for  the  preservation  of 
the  realm  ;  this  legal  functionary  dared  to  say,  that  the 
King,  by  his  supremacy,  might  discharge  any  cause  in 
the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  as  those  Courts  were  his.f 

The  subdued  tone  of  expostulation  which  prevailed 
on  the  side  of  the  Country  party  is  very  remarkable, 
and  a  disinclination  to  come  into  collision  with  the 
Throne  was  expressed  by  several  of  the  members  ;  yet 
they  pursued  a  decided  course,  and  passed  this  resolu- 
tion :  "  That  penal  statutes,  in  matters  ecclesiastical, 
cannot  be  suspended,  but  by  Act  of  Parliament,"  J  a 
resolution  which  they  carried  by  i68  against  ii6.  The 
House  afterwards  considered  an  address  to  the  King, 
embodying  the  resolution. 

The  debate,  to  which  the  resolution  and  the  address 
founded  upon  it  gave  rise,  on  the  14th  of  February, 
exemplified  the  same  spirit  of  moderation  as  had  pre- 

*  Wilson's  "Life  of  Defoe,"  I.  58. 

t  "Pari.  Hist."  IV.  517-526. 

X  "Journals,"  February  10,  167I. 


1673.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  411 

vailed  before.  Sir  Thomas  Meres  advocated  "  ease  fit 
for  tender  consciences "  in  the  words  of  the  Breda 
Declaration  "for  union  of  the  Protestant  subjects;" 
and  others  supported  the  plan  of  bringing  in  a  Bill  for 
the  purpose.  The  exact  purpose  of  such  a  Bill  did  not 
distinctly  appear,  since  some  members  were  for  a  wide 
comprehension,  embracing  within  the  Church  all  Dis- 
senters, and  leaving  no  liberty  for  any  who  would  not 
enter,  whilst  others,  again,  contended  for  a  liberal 
toleration  to  those  who  remained  outside  the  estab- 
lished pale.  This  diversity  of  opinion  and  indistinct- 
ness of  view  gave  considerable  advantage  to  Secretary 
Coventry,  who  retorted  upon  his  opponents  the  differ- 
ences they  manifested,  and  the  indecision  they  betrayed. 
At  length,  however,  the  address  was  carried  without  a 
dissentient  voice.*  It  was  couched  in  terms  so  contrived 
as  to  tide  over  all  difficulty.  In  the  Grand  Committee 
for  preparing  a  Bill  two  questions  arose.f  First,  who 
were  the  persons  to  be  benefited  1  or,  in  the  quaint 
phraseology  of  the  time,  "  who  were  to  be  eased  ?  " 
Should  everybody  be  included  .?  Should  all  Protest- 
ants }  Should  all  kinds  of  Dissenters,  including 
Levellers,  respecting  whose  existence,  however,  within 
a  religious  pale,  doubts  were  expressed.  Papists  were 
altogether  put  out  of  court.     "  The  Papists,"  exclaimed 

*  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  527-533.  Colbert,  writing  to  Louis  XIV., 
Qth  of  March,  1673,  says,  "  The  Chancellor,  the  Treasurer,  and 
the  Dukes  of  Buckingham  and  Lauderdale  are  of  opinion  to  main- 
tain this  Declaration  of  the  King,  their  master,  in  favour  of  the 
Nonconformists  ;  and  that  if  the  Parhament  persist  in  their  re- 
monstrances, as  it  is  not  doubted  they  will,  to  dissolve  it,  and  call 
another.  They  do  not  even  want  good  reasons  to  support  their 
opinion.  My  Lord  Arlington,  who  at  present  is  single  in  his  senti- 
ments, says,  that  the  King  his  master,  ought  not  to  do  it.'^ 
(Dalrymple's  "Memoirs,"  III.  89.) 

t  On  the  iSth  of  February  the  House  resolved  to  go  into  Com- 
mittee on  the  following  day. 


412  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

Mr.  Garroway,  "  are  under  an  anathema,  and  cannot 
come  in  under  pain  of  excommunication."      Finally, 
it  was    resolved   that    ease   should  "  be  given  to  His 
Majesty's   Protestant  subjects,  that  will  subscribe  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  take  the 
Oaths   of  Allegiance   and    Supremacy."     The   second 
question  respected  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  relief 
to  be  afforded.     What  was  "  the  ease  "  to  be  }     Was  it 
to  be  in  the  form  of  comprehension,  or  of  toleration,  or 
of  both  }     As  to  this  point,  the  House  seemed  to  be 
in    great   difficulty.     Indistinct  ideas   of  some  sort  of 
comprehension  were  most  common.     Even  Alderman 
Love,  a  Dissenter,  veered,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
imperfect   report  of  his  speech,   now  on  the   side   of 
liberty  outside  the  Church,  and  now  on  the  side  of  a 
large  and  liberal  inclusion  within  it.     He  confessed  no 
kindness  for  those  who  desired  preferment,  with  con- 
formity to  the  laws.     Those  on  whose  behalf  he  spoke 
did  not,  he  said,  desire  to  be  exempted  from  paying 
tithes,  or  from  holding  parish  offices,  except  the  office 
of  churchwarden,  and  that  "  not  without  being  willing 
to  pay  a  fine  for  the  contempt."     He  pleaded  that,  after 
submitting  to  the  test  to  be  agreed  upon.  Nonconformist 
ministers  ought  to  be  allowed  to  preach,  "  but  not  with- 
out the  magistrates'  leave,  the  doors  open,  and  in  the 
public   churches,   when   no   service   is   there."     "This 
latter  motion,"  says  the  report,  "he  retracted,  being 
generally  decried."     Then  he  rejoined  that  he  used  the 
words  "in  the  church,"  because  people  could  not  be 
thought  to  plot  in  such  a  place.    From  a  second  speech 
by  the  same  person  it  appears  that  he  moved  for  "  a 
general  indulgence  by  way  of  comprehension,"  but  what 
he  meant  by  that  is  not  explained.*    Comprehension  in 
*  ",Parl.  Hist.,"  IV.,  535 — 542.     Kennet,  Rapin,  Burnet,  and 


1673.]  TFTE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  413 

some  way  was  the  object  chiefly  desired,  and  the 
terms  of  such  comprehension  were  largely  and  con- 
fusedly discussed.  Even  then  a  spirit  moved  over  the 
waters  of  debate  which  prepared  for  the  order  to  be 
evolved  at  the  Revolution  ;  but  toleration,  in  its  nature 
and  principle,  as  it  was  enforced  by  some  of  the  Com- 
monwealth's-men,  or  as  it  was  expounded  by  John 
Locke,  or  as  it  is  now  universally  understood,  seems 
not  to  have  been  stated  by  any  one  who  shared  in  the 
debate.  This  remarkable  circumstance  indicates  that 
none  of  the  members  who  now  sat  on  the  benches  of 
St.  Stephen's  were  exactly  of  the  same  stamp  as  some 
who  had  occupied  them  before  the  Restoration.* 
Either  such  men  were  not  there  at  all,  or  they  had 
changed  their  opinions,  or  they  had  become  afraid  to 
utter  what  they  believed.  As  we  anticipate  the  ground 
which  was  taken,  and  the  sentiments  which  were  pre- 
valent when  the  Toleration  Act  was  passed,  comparing 
the  state  of  opinion  at  the  Revolution  with  the  state 
of  opinion  in  the  year  1673,  we  find  it  instructive  to 
notice  the  wonderful  advance  during  the  subsequent 
interval,  and  to  observe  how  silently  and  steadily  the 
principles  and  the  spirit  of  justice  were  making  their 
way.  One  member  who  favoured  toleration  was  so 
niggardly,  that  he  desired  only  to  "  have  it  penned  for 
such  places  as  should  be  appointed  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment ; "  and  another  thought  it  not  reasonable  that 
Nonconformists  should  have  their  "  meeting-houses  out 
of  town."  Nor  did  the  advocates  of  this  restricted 
freedom  plead  for  more  than  its  temporary  concession. 

Neal  give  very  unsatisfactory  accounts  of  the  debate.  Burnet's 
account  is  inaccurate. 

*  The  Commonwealth's-man,  Colonel  Birch,  spoke  on  the  sub- 
ject, but  it  does  not  appear  that  he  advocated  any  broad  measure 
of  rehgious  hberty. 


414  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

The  heads  of  the  Bill,  as  at  last  concocted,  were,  first, 
in  reference  to  comprehension,  that  subscription  should 
be  required  to  the  doctrinal  Articles  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  that  the  requirement  for  declaring  "  assent 
and  consent "  to  the  Prayer  Book  should  be  repealed  ; 
next,  in  reference  to  toleration,  that  pains  and  penalties 
for  religious  meetings  with  open  doors  should  be  no 
longer  inflicted,  and  that  teachers  should  subscribe  and 
take  the  prescribed  oaths  at  the  quarter  sessions.  The 
Act  should  continue  in  force  for  a  year,  and  from 
thence  to  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  Parliament. 

These  resolutions  were  adopted  on  the  27th  of 
February,*  and  a  Bill  founded  upon  them  was  read  a 
third  time  on  the  17th  of  March.f  On  the  second  of 
these  occasions.  Secretary  Coventry  said  he  hoped  the 
measure,  which  did  not  fix  sufficient  limitations,  would 
not  destroy  the  Church.  To  attempt  such  toleration 
as  had  never  been  tried  before,  he  maintained  to  be  a 
frivolous  expedient,  the  consequences  of  which  it  would 
be  beyond  their  power  to  remedy.  One  speaker  uttered 
the  oft-repeated  charge :  "  Dissenters  grow  numerous. 
If  you  pass  this  Act,  you  give  away  the  peace  of  the 
nation.  A  Puritan  was  ever  a  rebel.  These  Dissenters 
made  up  the  whole  army  against  the  King.  The  de- 
struction of  the  Church  was  then  aimed  at.  Pray  God 
it  be  not  so  now  !  "  |  The  Republicanism  of  Noncon- 
formists appears  to  have  been  a  stock  argument  against 
granting  them  any  liberty. 

The  Bill  did  pass,  and  this  fact  proves  that,  however 
inadequate  might  be  the  enunciation  of  the  principles 

*  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  552-553.  The  "Journals  "  under  date  con- 
tain the  Resolutions. 

t  There  are  remarks  on  this  Bill  written  by  Mr.  John  Humphrey 
in  Baxter's  "  Life,"  III.  144. 

X  "Pari.  Hist,"  IV.  571-574. 


1673.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  415 

of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  the  House  departed  from 
the  doctrines  upheld  by  it  ten  years  before.  The  dis- 
tinction between  articles  of  discipline  and  of  doctrine 
was  laid  down,  burdensome  impositions  were  proposed 
to  be  removed,  and  a  considerable  amount  of  freedom 
was  provided  for  those  outside  the  Establishment,  in  con- 
nection with  a  wider  opening  of  the  door  to  those  dis- 
posed to  enter  in.  Yet  these  debates  and  votes  ended 
in  nothing.  The  Bill  underwent  amendments  when  it 
reached  the  Lords.  These  amendments  were  objected 
to  by  the  Commons.  Time  was  wasted  between  the 
two  Houses,  notwithstanding  the  King's  warning  against 
delay,  and  such  delay  showed  that  neither  portion  of 
the  legislature  was  in  earnest  about  the  proposal.  Its 
fate  was  determined  by  the  adjournment  of  Parliament 
before  the  Bill  had  passed  the  Lords,  and  by  a  pro- 
rogation after  adjournment.* 

About  the  same  time  another  Bill  came  before  the 
Commons'  House,  enjoining  the  practice  of  frequent 
catechising  in  parochial  churches,  a  measure  resembling 
that  which  the  Presbyterians,  in  their  day  of  power,  had 
so  earnestly  desired.  Its  progress,  also,  was  stopped 
by  the  Lords.  Coincident  with  the  proceedings  upon 
the  Relief  Bill  were  two  very  important  circumstances, 
namely,  the  passing  of  the  Test  Act  and  the  cancelling 
of  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence. 

The  former  originated  so  early  as  the  28th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1673,  when  a  motion  was  made  for  removing  all 
Popish  recusants  out  of  military  office  or  command. 
This  motion  was  exceedingly  offensive  to  the  King 
and  to  the  Court,  being  aimed  at  the  King's  brother, 

*  Parliament  was  adjourned  on  the  29th  of  March,  to  the  20th 
of  October  ;  then  prorogued  to  the  27th,  and  again  on  the  4th  of 
November  to  the  7th  of  January,  1674. 


4i6  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

the  Duke  of  York,  who  was  ah-eady  generally  suspected 
of  having  embraced  the  Romish  faith.  There  followed 
the  same  day  a  resolution,  covering  a  still  wider  ground 
of  prohibition,  i.e.  "  that  all  persons  who  should  refuse 
to  take  the  Oaths  of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy,  and 
to  receive  the  sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England,"  should  be  "  incapable  of  all  public 
employments,  military  or  civiir*  This  attack  on  the 
Catholics  was  seconded  by  an  address,  agreed  upon, 
the  3rd  of  March,  by  the  Commons  against  the  growth 
of  Popery.  Also,  a  Bill  appeared  in  the  Lower  House, 
to  prevent  that  growth,  by  the  method  expressed  in  the 
above  resolution.  Strange  to  say,  the  idea  of  the  test 
so  expressed  emanated  on  this  occasion  from  no  other 
person  than  Lord  Arlington,  the  reputed  Romanist,  and 
a  member  of  the  Cabal,  partly,  it  is  said,  to  gratify 
personal  resentment,  and  partly  to  accomplish  objects 
of  personal  ambition.f  In  the  course  of  the  debate  in 
the  Commons,  a  member  tendered  a  proviso  "  for  re- 
nouncing the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation,for  a  further 
test  to  persons  bearing  office  ;  "  %  and  again,  strange  to 
say,  this  additional  sting  in  a  measure  sufficiently  irri- 
tating to  His  Majesty,  the  Duke,  and  the  whole  Court, 
was  introduced  by  another  member  of  the  Cabal,  whose 
name  began  with  the  second  vowel  in  the  notorious 
word,  Ashley,  now  Earl  of  Shaftesbury.§  In  this  case, 
too,  no  less  than  in  the  former,  resentment  and  ambi- 
tion, it  is  to  be  feared,  mingled  with  those  motives  which 
determined  this  step  ;  for  he  aimed,  by  what  he  was 

*  "Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  553-556. 

t  Lingard  (XII.  27)  states  the  fact  on  the  authority  of  the 
French  Ambassador  (Dalrymple,  II.,  App.  90),  and  the  motives 
on  the  authority  of  Marvell,  I.  494. 

X  "Pari  Hist.,"  IV.  561,  March  12th. 

§  Lord  Campbell's  "Lives  of  the  Lord  Chancellors,"  IV.  181. 


1G73.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  417 

doing,  to  drive  from  power  the  Romanizing  members  of 
the  Cabinet,  and  to  make  himself  master  of  the  situa- 
tion, a  project,  however,  in  which  he  did  not  succeed. 
This  additional  barrier  of  Protestant  defence,  con- 
structed by  Shaftesbury's  hands,  occasioned  a  polemical 
debate  in  the  Lower  House,  the  members  talking  much, 
and  very  confusedly  of  Transubstantiation,  of  Con- 
substantiation,  and  of  the  Sacramental  doctrine  held 
by  the  Church  of  England.  The  Bill,  including  the 
new  provision,  passed  the  Commons  on  the  12th  of 
March  ;  and  to  add  one  more  strange  circumstance  to 
this  history  uniquely  strange,  the  measure  found  its 
most  eloquent  supporter  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
person  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Earl  of  Bristol,  who 
defended  it  on  the  ground  that  it  would  quiet  a  popular 
panic,  by  the  simple  removal  of  a  few  Catholics  from 
office,  without  enacting  any  new  penalties  against 
Catholic  worship.  This  looked  like  sacrificing  personal 
interests  to  patriotism,  but  the  Earl  surrendered  all  pre- 
tension to  the  character  of  a  confessor  or  a  hero,  by 
procuring  the  insertion  of  a  clause  which  secured  to 
himself  and  to  his  wife  a  Royal  pension,  with  an 
exemption  from  the  necessity  of  taking  the  test.  The 
King,  who  at  first  seemed  as  much  incensed  as  his 
Courtiers,  at  last  reluctantly  gave  way  ;  assent  to  the 
Bill  being  the  price  demanded  by  the  Commons  for  the 
replenishment  of  His  Majesty's  bankrupt  exchequer. 
It  is  said  that  three  members  of  the  Cabal,  Clifford, 
Buckingham,  and  Lauderdale,  who  supported  the 
arbitrary  power  of  the  Crown,  professed  to  despise 
such  vulgar  temptations  as  had  overcome  their  col- 
leagues, and  that  they  encouraged  the  Monarch  to 
imitate  his  father,  by  seizing  the  obnoxious  members  of 
the  opposition,  by  bringing  the  Army  up  to  town,  and 

VOL.  III.  2    E 


41 8  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

by  making  himself  absolute  master  of  the  realm  ;  *  but 
Charles  was  too  indolent  or  too  shrewd  to  venture  on 
an  attempt  so  bold  and  so  insane.  The  Test  Act, 
therefore,  passed  ;  and  whilst  it  originated  with  one 
Catholic  nobleman,  and  was  advocated  by  another,  it 
found  no  opponent  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
part  of  the  Nonconformists  or  their  friends.  It  is  very 
true  that  the  Bill  pointed  only  at  Catholics,  that  it 
really  proposed  an  anti-Popish  test,  yet  the  construction 
of  it,  although  it  did  not  exclude  from  office  such 
Dissenters  as  could  occasionally  conform,  did  effectually 
exclude  all  who  scrupled  to  do  so.  Aimed  at  the 
Romanists,  it  struck  the  Presbyterians.  It  is  clear  that 
had  the  Nonconformists  and  the  Catholics  joined  their 
forces  with  those  of  the  Court,  in  opposing  the  measure, 
they  might  have  defeated  it ;  but  the  first  of  these 
classes  for  the  present  submitted  to  the  inconvenience, 
from  the  horror  which  they  entertained  of  Popery, 
hoping,  at  the  same  time,  that  some  relief  would  be 
afforded  for  this  personal  sacrifice  in  the  cause  of  a 
common  Protestantism.  Thus  the  passing  of  an  Act, 
Avhich,  until  a  late  period,  inflicted  a  social  wrong  upon 
two  large  sections  of  the  community,  is  to  be  attributed 
to  the  course  pursued  by  the  very  parties  whose  suc- 
cessors became  the  sufferers.  By  the  passing  of  the 
Test  Act,  Clifford,  now  an  avowed  Catholic,  was  ex- 
cluded from  the  House  of  Lords  ;  and,  in  consequence 
of  this  exclusion,  he  resigned  the  White  Staff,  and 
retired  to  the  County  of  Devon,  where  he  died  before 
the  end  of  the  year  1673.  "  He  went  off  the  stage  in 
great  discontent."  f 

The  next  important  circumstance  at  this  period  re- 
quiring  notice  is  the  withdrawal  of   the   Declaration 
*  Burnet,  I.  348.  t  "  Life  of  Calamy,"  I.  102. 


1673.]         THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  419 

of  Indulgence.  When  the  address  of  the  Commons  on 
that  subject  had  been  presented  to  the  King  he  repHed, 
that  he  was  troubled  to  find  the  Declaration  had  pro- 
duced so  much  disquiet,  and  had  given  occasion  to  the 
questioning  of  his  authority  in  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
He  was  sure,  he  said,  that  he  had  never  thought  of 
using  power  except  for  the  peace  and  establishment  of 
the  Church  ;  he  did  not  wish  to  suspend  laws  touching 
the  property,  the  rights,  or  the  liberties  of  his  subjects, 
nor  to  alter  the  doctrine  or  discipline  of  the  Church,  he 
only  wished  to  take  off  penalties,  which  he  believed  the 
Commons  did  not  desire  to  see  inflicted  according  to 
the  letter  of  the  law.  He  had  no  thought  of  neglecting 
the  advice  of  Parliament,  and  if  any  Bill  should  be 
offered  him  more  proper  to  attain  the  end  in  view,  he 
would  be  ready  to  concur  in  it.  With  this  answer  the 
Commons  did  not  feel  satisfied  ;  but  the  King  repeated 
in  the  month  of  March  that,  if  any  scruple  remained  as 
to  his  suspension  of  penal  laws,  he  faithfully  promised 
that  what  had  been  done  should  not  be  drawn  into  a 
precedent  for  the  future.*  At  the  same  time  the  Lord 
Chancellor  stated  that  His  Majesty  had  caused  the 
original  declaration,  under  the  Great  Seal,  to  be  can- 
celled in  his  presence  the  previous  evening.!     By  the 

*  "  Journals,"  Feb.  24th,  March  8th.  After  the  Declaration  had 
been  withdrawn  the  old  licenses  gave  much  trouble.  (See  "  State 
Papers,"  April  5,  1673.) 

t  Dalrymple  ("Memoirs,"  III.  92)  remarks:  "Charles'  De- 
claration of  Indulgence  has  been  commonly  imputed  to  the 
intrigues  of  France  with  Charles  for  the  purpose  of  serving  the 
interest  of  Popery.  But  Colbert's  despatches  show  that  France 
had  not  the  least  hand  in  it,  that  it  was  a  scheme  of  Buckingham 
and  Shaftesbury  to  gain  the  Dissenters,  and  that  France  was  the 
cause  of  Charles'  recaUing  it."  The  letters  printed  in  Dalrymple 
indicate  that  Buckingham  and  Shaftesbury  had  strongly  sup- 
ported the  Declaration,  and  they  show  further  that  Charles  wished 
Louis   XIV.  to  believe   that   he   desired   to.  please  him.      "  He 


420  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

operation  of  the  Test  Act,  by  the  cancelHng  of  the 
Declaration,  and  by  dropping  the  Indulgence,  Non- 
conformists were  left  in  a  worse  plight  than  that  in 
which  they  had  been  before,  so  far  as  the  law  was 
concerned.  The  state  of  the  law,  however,  is  not  to 
be  taken  as  an  accurate  index  of  their  condition.  The 
pressure  of  a  bad  law  depends  very  much  upon  the 
hands  employed  in  its  administration.  Happily  the 
Declaration,  which  ultra-Royalists  were  disposed  to 
honour,  on  the  very  ground  that  it  was  unconstitu- 
tional, had  wrought  a  change  in  their  feeling  towards 
Dissenters  ;  and  when  the  seal  attached  to  it  had  been 
broken,  it  left  a  spell  upon  their  minds.  The  Church- 
men's treatment  in  many  instances  of  those  who  were 
not  Churchmen  continued  for  a  while  after  the  year 
1672,  to  be  less  severe  than  it  had  been  previously.* 

The  Church,  gathered  by  Dr.  Owen,  enjoyed  much 
freedom  in  the  year  1673,  and  afterwards.  His  Con- 
venticle, which  it  would  appear  was  situated  in  White's 
Alley,t  Moorfields,  presented  a  list  of  members  includ- 
ing several  persons  of  rank.  We  are  enabled  to  enter 
within  the  doors  of  the  meeting-house,  fitted  up,  no 
doubt,  with  Puritan  decency  and  comfort,  whilst  destitute 
of  all  beauty,  and  to  identify,  amidst  the  hearers  of  the 
ex-Dcan  of  Christ  Church,  certain  distinguished  persons. 
There  was  Lord  Charles  Fleetwood,  Cromwell's  son-in- 

assurcd  me,"  says  Colbert,  ''  that  your  Majesty's  sentiments  had 
always  more  power  over  him  than  all  the  reasonings  of  his  most 
faithful  Ministers."     (March  20,  1673.) 

*  ''AH  Sectaries,"  says  Reresby  ("Memoirs,"  174),  "now 
publicly  repaired  to  their  meetings  and  Conventicles,  nor  could 
all  the  laws  afterwards,  and  the  most  rigorous  execution  of  them, 
ever  suppress  these  Separatists,  or  bring  them  to  due  conformity." 

t  Where  Owen's  Church  met  has  been  regarded  as  uncertain, 
but  the  returns  made  in  1667  to  Sheldon's  inquiries  specify  the 
place  of  meeting  at  that  time  as  White's  Alley. 


1673-1675.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         421 

law,  described  in  an  earlier  portion  of  this  work,  whom 
Milton  has  eulogized  as  inferior  to  none  in  humanity, 
in  gentleness,  and  in  benignity  of  disposition,  and  whom 
Noble  admits  to  have  been  a  man  of  religion,  and  a 
venerator  of  liberty.  There  was  Colonel  John  Des- 
borough,  a  staunch  Republican,  a  man  of  rough  manners, 
whose  name,  together  with  that  of  Fleetwood,  Milton 
has  honoured.  There  was  Major-General  Berry,  once 
a  friend  of  Baxter's,  and  applauded  by  him  as  a  man 
of  sincere  piety,  till  he  forfeited  that  excellent  person's 
favour  by  becoming  an  Independent.  There  was  young 
Sir  John  Hartopp,  of  singular  intelligence  and  piety. 
Ladies  of  distinction  also  were  there  :  the  Lady  Tomp- 
son,  wife  of  Sir  John  Tompson ;  *  Lady  Vere  Wilkinson ; 
Mrs.  Abney  ;  and  deserving  of  notice,  more,  however, 
for  her  eccentricities  than  her  excellencies,  Mrs.  Bendish, 
grand-daughter  of  Oliver  Cromwell.f 

Yet  about  the  time  that  Owen  and  his  congregation 
remained  unmolested,  or  just  afterwards,  and  the  cir- 
cumstance should  be  mentioned  as  an  illustration  of 
the  parti-coloured  character  of  Church  history  in  those 
days,  Nathaniel  Heywood  speaks  of  the  persecution  he 
endured.  Before  the  9th  of  April,  1674,  he  had  for 
four  months  experienced  more  trouble  and  opposition 
in  his  ministerial  employment  than  he  had  ever  done 
before  in  all  his  life.  The  archers  grieved  him,  and 
shot  at  him  thirty-four  arrows  (by  which  he  meant 
zuarrants) ;  "but  our  bow,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "abides 
in  strength  by  the  hands  of  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob. 
Officers  have  come  eighteen  Lord's  days  together,  but 
have   not  as  yet  scattered  us."  %     A  year  afterwards 

*  Afterwards  Lord  Haversham. 

t  See  Anecdotes  of  Mrs.  Bendish  in  Noble's  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Protectoral  House  of  Cromwell,"  II.  329. 
%  "  Life,"  by  Sir  H.  Ashurst,  27. 


422  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XT. 

(May  I,  1675)  he  writes,*  "all  these  troubles  are 
nothing  to  that  I  am  now  mourning  under,  the  loss  of 
public  liberty,  a  closed  mouth,  dumb  and  silent  Sab- 
baths, to  be  cast  out  of  the  vineyard  as  a  dry  and 
withered  branch,  and  to  be  laid  aside  as  a  broken 
vessel  in  whom  there  is  no  pleasure,  is  a  sore  burden 
I  know  not  how  to  bear,  my  heart  bleeds  under  it  as  a 
sting  and  edge  added  to  my  other  troubles  and  afflic- 
tions. This  exercise  of  my  ministry  next  to  Christ  is 
dearer  to  me  than  anything  in  the  world.  It  was  my 
heaven  till  I  came  home,  even  to  spend  this  life  in 
gathering  souls  to  Christ  ;  but  I  must  lay  even  that 
down  at  Christ's  feet,  and  be  dumb  and  silent  before 
the  Lord,  because  He  has  done  it,  who  can  do  no 
wa-ong,  and  whose  judgments  are  past  finding  out.  I 
am  sure  I  have  reason  to  conclude  with  the  prophet, 
'  I  will  bear  the  indignation  of  the  Lord,  because  I 
have  sinned  against  Him.'  " 

\\\  some  parts  of  the  country.  Nonconformists  would 
not  believe  that  the  King  intended  to  depart  from  his 
liberal  policy.  There  was  a  meddling  informer  at 
Yarmouth  named  Bowen,  who  frequently  corresponded 
with  Sir  Joseph  Williamson  respecting  the  conduct  of 
the  Independents  in  that  town.  From  his  letters, 
preserved  in  the  Record  Office,  some  curious  illustra- 
tions may  be  drawn.  His  testimony  in  matters  relative 
to  the  character  and  conduct  of  Nonconformists  is 
worth  nothing,  owing  to  his  prejudices  ;  but  his  corre- 
spondence shows  what  was  reported  about  them  at  the 
time.  "  The  Nonconformists  here  give  out  that  they 
are  to  have  a  hearing  next  Friday  before  His  Majesty's 
Council,  and  doubt  not  but  they  shall  sufficiently  be 
authorized  to  meet  in  public  as  before.     They  were  so 

*  "  Life,"  by  Sir  H.  Asluirst,  100. 


1673-1675.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.        423 

rude,  as  I  am  credibly  informed,  meeting  at  one  Mr. 
Brewster's,  near  Wrentham,  in  Suffolk,  about  twelve 
miles  from  hence,  that  two  informers  coming  to  the 
House,  and  inquiring  at  the  door  what  company  they 
had  within,  they  within,  hearing  these  inquiries  came 
running  out,  crying  thieves,  and  fell  upon  them, 
knocking  of  them  down,  then  drew  them  through  the 
foul  hogstye,  and  from  thence  through  a  pond  of 
water — one  of  the  two  is  since  dead  by  their  rude 
handling."  * 

Wild  rumours  floated  down  to  Yarmouth  respecting 
an  interview,  which  Dr.  Owen  was  said  to  have  had 
with  the  King,  in  which  the  Independent  Divine  spoke 
of  the  disturbance  given  to  His  Majesty's  subjects,  and 
in  which  His  Majesty  promised  that  he  would  speedily 
redress  their  wrongs.  Encouraged  by  these  rumours  the 
Yarmouth  Nonconformists  paid  no  attention  to  orders 
in  Council,  but  assembled  as  before  at  their  usual  place 
of  worship,  stating  as  a  reason  for  the  liberty  they  took, 
that  the  King's  mind  had  altered  on  the  subject.  The 
"  lukewarm,"  says  Bowen,  "  are  here  the  most  numerous ; 
their  religion  must  give  way  to  interest,  and  this  is  so 
involved  within  one  and  the  other  that  the  man  is  not 
to  be  found  who  dares  act.  Many  wish  the  work  were 
done,  but  none  durst  do  it  for  fear  he  should  suffer  in 
his  trade  or  calling,  they  all  having  a  dependence,  little 
or  much,  upon  one  another." 

The  Cabal  crumbled  to  pieces  in  1673.  It  had  never 
been  guided  by  any  common  principles,  it  had  never 

*  It  is  stated  in  other  communications  that  Nonconformists  did 
not  always  meekly  submit  to  oppression.  "  John  Faucet  had 
disturbed  the  Presbyterians  at  worship  in  the  Granary — and,  in 
consec[uence,  was  violently  assaulted,  beaten,  and  trodden  upon 
by  several  rude  persons,  and  in  great  danger  of  his  life."  (Nor- 
wich, Dec.  II,  1674,  Thomas  Corie.) 


424  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

felt  any  community  of  interest,  it  had  never  been 
united  by  personal  sympathies.  Our  notions  of  cabinet 
councillors  bound  together  by  some  characteristic 
policy,  do  not  apply  to  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  when 
a  Ministry  included  persons  of  divers  opinions,  drawn 
together  simply  by  the  Sovereign's  choice,  and  selected 
mainly  for  discharging  executive  duties.  Want  of 
cohesion,  apparent  in  all  the  cabinets  of  that  period, 
was  singularly  conspicuous  in  this  instance.  Clifford 
was  compelled  to  resign  office  by  the  operation  of  the 
Test  Act,  Shaftesbury,  dismissed  from  the  ofhce  of 
Chancellor,  went  over,  accompanied  by  Buckingham, 
to  the  Opposition,  and  Arlington,  threatened  with  im- 
peachment, relinquished  his  Secretaryship  of  State  for 
a  quiet  post  in  the  Royal  household.  Lauderdale  alone 
retained  his  seals,  and  was  chiefly  employed  in  the 
administration  of  Scotch  afl"airs. 

Sir  Thomas  Osborne,  created  Earl  of  Danby,  having 
taken  up  the  White  Staff  which  Clifford  had  laid  down, 
now  became  principal  minister ;  and  from  his  business 
talents  and  his  love  for  power  and  the  emoluments  of 
office,  he  acquired  an  influence  over  the  Royal  councils, 
like  that  of  Clarendon  in  his  palmy  days.  He  re- 
sembled his  great  predecessor  in  his  opposition  to 
Popery,  not  less  than  in  his  abilities  and  ambition  ;  but 
he  was  much  more  of  an  Englishman,  and  thoroughly 
detested  the  idea  of  truckling  to  France.  In  that 
respect  his  policy  differed  from  the  policy  of  the  Cabal ; 
but  he  inherited  from  that  Ministry  the  practice  of 
bribing  Parliament,  carrying  corruption  even  further 
than  ever  the  Cabal  had  done,  for,  whereas  they  only 
bought  speeches,  he  bought  votes  as  well.  His  policy 
was  decidedly  Protestant  in  foreign  affairs,  as  the 
means  of  attaining  his  object,  and  also,  from  his  own 


1G73-1675.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         425 

predilections,  he  especially  sought  to  gratify  the  old 
Cavalier  and  High  Church  party.  Clarendon  had  been 
accused  of  neglecting  the  friends  of  the  martyred 
King,  and  of  being  indifferent  to  his  memory,  Danby 
now  gave  the  former  encouragement ;  and  he  also  did 
honour  to  the  latter,  by  recovering  the  bronze  statue 
of  Charles  I.,  and  setting  it  up  at  Charing  Cross. 
He  earnestly  promoted  the  rebuilding  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  and,  at  the  same  time,  turned  his  attention 
to  the  Dissenters ;  but  it  was  to  restrain  their  liberty 
and  to  check  their  progress,  both  of  which  had  received 
an  impetus  during  the  latter  part  of  the  administration 
of  the  Cabal,  Danby,  and  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  now 
Lord  Keeper,  called  to  their  councils  on  Church  affairs, 
two  prelates  whom  the  Nonconformists  exceedingly 
disliked,  and  not  without  reason,  Morley,  Bishop  of 
Win(;liester,  and  Ward,  Bishop  of  Salisbury.  These 
prelates,  it  was  inferred,  recommended  the  King  to  call 
in  the  licenses  for  worship,  which,  notwithstanding  the 
cancelling  of  the  Declaration,  remained  individually 
unwithdrawn.* 

The  reign  of  intolerance  returned,  and  the  weight 
of  its  iron  mace  fell  upon  multitudes.  The  men  who 
before,  rather  than  countenance  an  exercise  of  illegal 
power,  or  share  their  liberty  with  the  Papist,  had  re- 
jected the  Indulgence,  and  supported  the  Test  Act,  now 
felt  how  cruelly  they  were  rewarded  by  Parliament  for 
their  zeal  against  Absolutism  and  Popery ;  whilst 
others,  who  had  taken  no  part  in  their  proceedings, 
found  themselves  treated  just  like  their  neighbours. 
The  Court,  incensed  at  being  thwarted  in  their  plans 
respecting  Popery,  despatched  informers  to  ferret  out 

*  Sheldon  sent  letters  to  the  Bishops  of  his  province,  making 
fresh  inquiries  about  Dissenters.     (Neal,  IV.  467.) 


426  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XT. 

Nonconformists.  The  drum  ecclesiastic  was  loudly 
beaten,  and  a  High  Churchman,  in  his  sermon  before 
the  House  of  Commons,  told  the  honourable  members 
that  Dissenters  could  be  cured  only  by  vengeance,  and 
that  the  best  way  was  to  set  "  fire  to  the  faggot "  to 
teach  these  obstinate  people  "  by  scourges  or  scorpions," 
and  to  "  open  their  eyes  with  gall."  * 

One  of  the  most  vexatious  impositions  enacted 
immediately  after  the  Restoration  was  the  oath  pre- 
sented by  the  Corporation  Act,  declaring  that  it  was 
unlawful  wider  any  pj'-etence  to  bear  arms  against  the 
King.  This  oath  was  introduced  into  the  Act  of 
Uniformity,  with  the  addition  that  the  Covenant  en- 
tailed no  obligation  "to  endeavour  any  change  or 
alteration  of  Government  in  Church  or  State,"  this 
formulary  repudiating  the  Covenant  being  intended 
only  for  temporary  use,  to  expire  at  the  end  of  twenty 
years.  But  now  another  test  was  proposed  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  if  not  by  the  suggestion,  yet  with  the 
sanction  of  Danby,  a  test  which  required  the  following 
declaration :  "  I  do  swear  that  I  will  not  endeavour  an 
alteration  of  the  Protestant  religion  now  established  by 
law  in  the  Church  of  England  ;  nor  will  I  endeavour 
any  alteration  in  the  Government  of  this  kingdom  in 
Church  or  State,  as  it  is  by  law  established."  f  Such 
a  declaration  is  so  utterly  opposed  to  all  the  sentiments 
and  traditions  of  Englishmen,  that  it  fills  us  with 
wonder  that  it  could  even  have  been  thought  of,  yet  it 
was  contrived  as  a  thing  to  be  imposed  upon  every 
member  of  Parliament,  and  upon  all  persons  holding 

*  Neal,  IV.  464. 

t  Baxter  spent  an  immense  amount  of  subtle  casuistry  upon  the 
subject  of  the  declaration,  and  actually  put  such  a  forced  meaning 
upon  it,  that  he  said  there  was  nothing  in  it  to  be  refused  !  ("  Life 
and  Times,"  III.  168.) 


1G73-1G75.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         427 

office  under  the  Crown.  The  King,  at  that  period 
under  a  truly  mad  desire  for  absolutism,  threw  him- 
self with  so  much  energy  into  the  conflict,  that  he 
attended  constantly  on  the  debate,  standing  at  the 
fire-side  in  the  Upper  House,  day  after  day  for  seven- 
teen days,  listening  to  the  oratory  of  the  Peers.  Not 
only  the  Lord  Treasurer  Danby,  but  the  Lord  Keeper 
Finch  encouraged  this  assault  upon  the  liberties  of 
their  country ;  and  it  must  not  be  concealed  that 
the  two  prelates,  who  had  already  signalized  them- 
selves by  their  intolerance,  Morley  and  Ward,  united 
with  the  two  temporal  Lords  in  this  unpatriotic  attempt. 
Their  most  determined,  most  able,  and  most  eloquent 
opponent  was  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury.  On  this  occa- 
sion certainly  he  did  good  service  to  the  cause  of 
freedom.  He  prolonged  the  sittings  till  he  wearied 
his  enemies,  and  most  unmercifully  did  he  lash  the 
Bishops  for  the  part  which  they  took  in  the  debate. 
He  asked,  what  were  the  boundaries  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  which  the  new  oath  required  men  to  swear 
they  would  never  alter .''  He  pointed  out  defects  in 
the  Church  of  England,  and  dwelt  upon  the  conflicting 
interpretations  which  her  standards  had  received  from 
her  own  Divines ;  and  he  inquired,  whether  it  would 
be  a  crime  to  make  an  alteration,  by  bringing  back  the 
Liturgy  to  what  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  .-* 
One  occupant  of  the  Episcopal  Bench,  who  since  his. 
elevation  had  rarely  entered  a  pulpit,  whispered  to  a 
friend,  loud  enough  in  the  ill-constructed  house  to  be 
heard  by  his  neighbours,  "  I  wonder  when  he  will  have 
done  preaching!"  "When.?"  continued  Shaftesbury, 
"  when  I  am  made  a  Bishop,  my  Lord."  I  cannot 
follow  the  discussions  upon  the  Bill  ;  my  brief  notice 
of  which  is  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  indicating  its. 


-428  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

tendency  with  regard  to  the  Church,  by  investing  it 
with  a  fictitious  infallibility,  by  fostering  towards  it  an 
admiration  as  fatal  as  it  was  foolish,  since  it  tended  to 
prevent  the  increase  of  its  benefits,  through  the  reform 
of  its  abuses.  It  is  enough  to  add,  that,  after  dragging 
the  country  to  the  verge  of  a  convulsion,  the  Govern- 
ment felt  compelled  to  abandon  the  Bill* 

Comprehension  came  anew  under  consideration. 
Overtures  respecting  this  point  were  made  in  the  early 
part  of  the  year  1673  to  Richard  Baxter  by  the  Earl 
of  Orrery.  He  professed  that  many  influential  persons 
desired  such  a  result,  and  mentioned  the  names  of 
the  new  Lord  Treasurer,  and  even  of  Bishop  Morley, 
"  who  vehemently  professed  his  desire  of  it."  f  Messages 
and  meetings,  on  the  same  subject,  followed  in  the 
spring  of  1675,  after  Morley  had,  it  is  said  of  late, 
"on  all  occasions,  in  the  company  of  lords,  gentle- 
men, and  divines,  cried  out  of  the  danger  of  Popery, 
and  talkt  much  for  abatements  and  taking  in  the 
Nonconformists,  or  else "  all  were  "  like  to  fall  into 
the  Papists'  hands."  Bates  brought  to  Baxter  a 
message  from  Tillotson,  to  the  efl'ect  that  Tillotson 
and  Stillingfleet  wished  for  a  meeting  with  himself, 
Manton,  and  others.  The  anxiety  of  the  Presbyterians 
for  some  accommodation,  as  they  called  it,  became 
notorious ;  and  Baxter  repeatedly  showed  now,  as  he 
had  done  before,  the  sincerity  and  earnestness  of  his 
solicitude  in  reference  to  the  matter.|  Prolonged  de- 
bate and  voluminous  correspondence,  the  discussion  of 
principles,  and  the  arrangement  of  details,  questions, 

*  "Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  714.     See  Locke's  Letter,  Ibid.,  Appendix, 
xlvii.;  Calamy's  "  Life,"  I.  79. 
t  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  109. 

X  Ibid.,  156. 


1675.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  429 

answers,  strictures,  rejoinders  could  not  quench  the 
ardour  of  the  man  who  combined  in  one,  the  quaHties 
of  a  theological  disputant  and  an  apostle  of  union, 
qualities  which  had  a  tendency  to  neutralize  each 
other.  He  had  faith  in  some  of  his  Episcopalian 
brethren,  as  disposed  to  meet  him  half  way.  Which- 
cote,  Stillingfleet,  Gifford,  Tillotson,  Cradock,  Outram, 
he  speaks  of  with  honour,  declaring  he  made  no  doubt, 
if  the  matter  could  be  left  in  such  hands,  that  differ- 
ences would  be  "  healed  in  a  few  weeks'  time."  *  But 
in  Bishop  Morley  he  had  no  faith.f  The  incon- 
sistencies of  Morley  may  perhaps  be  understood  by 
examining  into  what  were  probably  the  motives  of  his 
conduct.  His  main  policy  was  to  protect  the  Estab- 
lishment, on  the  basis  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  against 
Papists  on  the  one  hand,  and  against  Dissenters  on  the 
other.  He  shared  in  the  alarm  which  conversions  to 
Rome  and  the  encroachments  of  that  Church  inspired 
throughout  England  at  the  time  ;  and,  partly  from  that 
cause,  he  was  induced  to  support  the  Bill  just  described, 
thinking  by  the  new  oath  which  stereotyped  the  Church, 
to  prevent  an  invasion  by  the  enemy.  But  now  the 
Bishop  might  conceive  that  it  would  be  desirable  to 
consolidate  English  Protestantism.  Strength  was  being 
wasted  by  internecine  warfare,  at  a  moment  when 
Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians  stood  before  a  common 
foe.  Why  not  gather  the  forces  of  the  Church  and  of 
the  sects,  and  concentrate  them  upon  the  great  enemy 
of  this  country's  liberty  and  peace  }  Such  impressions, 
under  the  circumstances,  were  not  unnatural  in  the 
mind  of  a   man    like    Morley,      Thus    influenced,  he 

*  "Life  and  Times,"  no,  131. 

t  Ibid.,   156.      Further  notice  of  Morley  will  be  taken  here- 
after. 


430  RELIGION  IM  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XT. 

would  talk  and  act,  as  Baxter,  with  strong  suspicions 
of  his  sincerity,  reports  him  to  have  done.  Yet  at  the 
time  Morley  might  be  perfectly  sincere,  although  a 
reaction  of  prejudice,  after  a  time,  proved  too  much  for 
his  new-born  zeal  in  behalf  of  union.  The  schemes  of 
1673  and  1675  met  with  the  same  fate  as  the  schemes 
of  1667  and  1668. 

Parliament  prorogued  in  June,  reassembled  the  13th 
of  October,  when  the  Lord  Keeper,  in  his  opening 
speech,  called  renewed  attention  to  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
He  said  that  His  Majesty  had  so  often  recommended 
the  consideration  of  religion,  and  so  very  often  ex- 
pressed a  desire  for  the  assistance  of  the  House  in  his 
care  and  protection  of  it,  that  "the  Defender  of  the 
Faith,"  had  become  "  the  advocate  of  it  too,"  and  had 
left  those  without  excuse,  who  remained  under  any 
kind  of  doubts  or  fears.  "  Would  you,"  asked  he,  "  raise 
the  due  estimation  and  reverence  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  its  just  height.?"  "All  your  petitions  of 
this  kind  will  be  grateful  to  the  King."  * 

The  persecution  of  Nonconformists  continued  to 
depend  very  much  upon  the  temper  of  neighbours  and 
the  character  of  magistrates.  In  some  cases  their 
meetings  were  broken  up,  and  they  were  taken  prisoners, 
but,  in  other  cases,  they  were  allowed  to  assemble  in 
their  places  of  worship  without  molestation,  much  to 
the  annoyance  of  impotent  enemies.  A  Government 
correspondent  in  the  town  of  L^am  reported  a  private 
meeting  of  about  forty  of  "  the  Presbyterian  gang," 
discovered  by  the  Curate  and  officers  of  the  parish 
of  St.  Margaret.  These  Nonconformists  made  their 
escape,  but  "  enough  were  taken  notice  of  to  make 
satisfaction  of  the  rest,"  and  they  "were  to  be  pre- 
*  "Pari.  Hist.;'  IV.  741. 


lG7y.]  THE    CHURCH  OF   THE   RESTORATION.  431 

sented  according  to  law."  The  Nonconformists  at 
Yarmouth  continued  their  meetings  publicly,  and  in 
as  great  numbers  as  ever.  This  sufferance,  it  was 
complained,  filled  with  impudence  people  who,  when 
the  laws  were  put  in  execution,  were  as  tame  as 
lambs.*  The  same  informant  who  states  this,  reports 
that  the  "  Bishop  of  Norwich  had  sent  to  know  how 
many  persons  received  the  communion  at  Church,  and 
what  was  the  number  of  recusants  and  Nonconformists  ; 
and  that  the  ministers  and  churchwardens  feared  if 
they  should  make  the  Dissenting  party  so  great  as 
they  are,  it  might  put  some  fear  in  His  IMajesty,  and 
discourage  him  in  attempting  to  reform  them,  they 
judging  their  number  has  been  the  only  cause  they 
have  been  so  favourably  dealt  with  hitherto."  "  Of  the 
same  opinion,"  he  observes,  "  they  are  in  other  parts 
as  well  as  here,  so  that  there  is  likely  to  be  an  imi- 
perfect  account."  Not  above  500,  it  is  affirmed,  would 
be  found  to  be  in  communion  with  the  Church  of 
England.  As  to  Dissenters,  says  this  writer,  "how 
many  of  them  were  in  Church  fellowship,  as  they  term 
it,  or  break  bread  together,  I  am  certain  here  is  not 
one  hundred  men  besides  the  women."  He  adds, 
"The  greater  number  of  people  there,  as  elsewhere, 
were  the  profane  and  unstable,  who  were  on  the 
increase,  tending  to  an  unsettlement  either  in  Church 
or  State."  f 

It  is  curious  to  notice  the  changing  fortunes  of  Dis- 
senters, how,  after  a  lull  of  peace,  they  were  overtaken 
again  by  a  storm  of  trouble.  The  copious  correspond- 
ence of  the  Yarmouth  informer  traces  the  history  in 
that  town  time  after  time.     The  bailiff  was  stimulated 

*  "  State  Papers,"  November  8th. 

t  "State  Papers,"  1676.    Bowcn  to  Williamson.    February  21st. 


432  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

to  interfere,  and  he  issued  his  warrant  to  the  constables 
to  assist  in  dispersing  the  illegal  worshippers  ;  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  difficult  to  get  these  officers  to  act 
in  the  business,  since  there  were  three  of  their  number 
who  "daily  frequented  "  the  reprobated  place  of  worship. 
It  being  reported  that  the  Anabaptists  were  meeting 
to  the  number  of  80  or  90,  the  constables  were  sent  to 
disperse  them,  and  they  took  five  of  the  chief  people  into 
custody.  The  correspondent  exultingly  adds,  "  Several 
of  the  Nonconformist  grandees  came  yesterday  to  our 
Church,  and  of  the  common  sort,  so  many  as  filled  our 
Church  fuller  than  ever  I  saw  it  since  the  year  1665." 
In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  Dissenting  affairs  at 
Yarmouth  took  another  favourable  turn.  Their  ap- 
proved friends  having  recovered  the  helm  of  municipal 
affairs,  Nonconformists  were  regarded  as  more  dangerous 
than  ever,  for  their  meetings  were  held  at  break  of 
day  within  closed  doors.  For  two  Sundays  the  angry 
correspondent  was  awakened  out  of  his  sleep,  the 
schismatics  kept  up  such  a  trampling  as  they  walked 
under  his  window,  that  he  rose  out  of  bed  to  see  what 
could  be  the  matter.* 

It  is  sometimes  forgotten,  but  it  is  worth  remark, 
that  other  meetings,  besides  Conventicles,  were  at  this 
period  proscribed.  Coffee-houses  were  then  such  in- 
stitutions as  clubs  are  now,  and  Dryden  a  little  later 
might  be  seen  at  "Wills,"  in  Covent  Garden,  surrounded 
by  the  wits,  seated  in  "  his  armed  chair,  which  in  the 
winter  had  a  settled  and  prescriptive  place  by  the  fire." 
Some  houses  of  a  lower  character  are  described  as  ex- 
changes "  where  haberdashers  of  political  small-wares 
meet,  and  mutually  abuse  each  other  and  the  public  with 
bottomless  stories."     Conversation  ranged  over  all  kinds 

*  "  State  Papers,"  October  9th. 


1675.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  433 

of  topics,  scandalous,  literary,  political,  and  ecclesiastical ; 
and  questions  touching  Papists  and  Nonconformists  were 
earnestly  discussed  within  those  quaint  old  parlours, 
over  cups  of  coffee  and  chocolate,  sherbet,  and  tea. 
These  discussions  were  reported  to  the  men  in  power 
as  being  often  of  a  treasonable  nature,  even  as  Non- 
conformist sermons,  only  with  much  less  reason,  were 
so  represented.  Consequently  a  proclamation  appeared 
in  the  month  of  December,  1675,  recalling  licenses  for 
the  sale  of  coffee,  and  ordering  all  coffee-houses  to  be 
shut  up  ;  "  because  in  such  houses,  and  by  the  meeting 
of  disaffected  persons  in  them,  divers  false,  malicious, 
and  scandalous  reports  were  devised  and  spread  abroad, 
to  the  defamation  of  His  Majesty's  Government  and 
the  disturbance  of  the  quiet  and  peace  of  the  realm." 
But  public  opinion  was  stronger  in  reference  to  coffee- 
houses than  it  was  in  reference  to  Conventicles,  and 
whilst  the  latter  remained  beneath  a  legal  ban,  the 
former  were  speedily  re-opened,  "  under  a  severe 
admonition  to  the  keepers,  that  they  should  stop  the 
reading  of  all  scandalous  books  and  papers,  and  hinder 
every  scandalous  report  against  the  Government."  * 

Comprehension  and  toleration  continued  to  be  dis- 
cussed from  the  press.  I  have  noticed  publications  in 
the  year  1667  bearing  upon  such  subjects.  Between 
that  date  and  the  period  to  which  we  are  now  brought, 
a  controversy  had  been  going  on  respecting  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  religious  liberty  ;  notorious  on  the 
one  side  for  the  baseness  of  the  attack,  memorable  on 
the  other  for  the  chivalry  of  the  defence.  Samuel 
Parker  had  been  brought  up  amongst  the  Puritans,  had 
distinguished  himself  at  Oxford  during  the  Common- 

*  "Harl.  Misc.,"  VIII.  7.     "Lives  of  the  Norths,"  I.  316,  et 
seq.,  see  Notes.     Knight's  "  Popular  Hist.,"  IV.  326. 
VOL.   III.  2   F 


434  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XT. 

wealth  as  one  of  the  griicllcrs  (an  ascetic  little  company 
of  students,  whose  refection,  when  they  met  together, 
was  oatmeal  and  water),  and  was  esteemed  "  one  of  the 
preciousest   young   men   in   the    University."  *      This 
man   proved   recreant  to  his  principles  after  Charles' 
return,  and,  swinging  round  with  immense  momentum, 
became  as  violent  in  his  Episcopalian  as  he  could  ever 
have  been  in  his  Presbyterian  zeal.     Having  come  up 
to  London,  and  made  himself  known  as  "  a  great  droller 
on  the  Puritans,"  he,  in   the   year    1667,    obtained   a 
chaplaincy  at  Lambeth,  and  thus   found   himself  on 
the  high  road  to  preferment.     In   1669  he  published  a 
book,  the  title  of  which,  like  so  many  in  those  days, 
fully  describes  its   contents,  and  expresses  its  spirit. 
He  calls  it  "A  discourse  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  wherein 
the   authority  of  the  civil    magistrate   over   the  con- 
sciences of  subjects  in  matters  of  external  religion  is 
asserted,  the  mischief  and  inconveniences  of  toleration 
are   represented,  and  all  pretences  pleaded  on  behalf 
of  liberty  of  conscience  are  fully  answered."    The  spirit 
of  this  book  may  be  seen  from  the  preface,  in  which 
the  author  justifies  the  violence  of  his  attacks  upon 
Nonconformists.      "  Let   any  man  that  is   acquainted 
with   the  wisdom  and   sobriety  of  true    religion,"  he 
exclaims  indignantly,  "  tell  me  how  'tis  possible  not 
to  be  provoked  to  scorn  and  indignation  against  such 
proud,  ignorant,  and  supercilious  hypocrites.     To  lash 
these   morose   and   churlish   zealots   with   smart    and 
twinging  satires  is  so  far  from  being  a  criminal  passion, 
that  'tis  a  seal  of  meekness  and  charity."     Thus  he 
strikes  the  key-note  of  what  he  continues  from  page  to 
page,  disgusting  every  sensible  reader  ;  yet  it  is  curious 
to  find  him  maintaining  unequivocally  that  the  affairs 

*  Wood's  "Ath.  Ox.,"  IV.  226. 


1G75.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  435 

of  religion,  as  they  must  be  subject  to  the  supreme 
civil  power,  so  they  ought  to  be  to  none  other,  and 
"that  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of  princes  [is]  not 
derived  from  any  grant  of  our  Saviour,  but  from  the 
natural  and  antecedent  rights  of  all  sovereign  power." 
Dr.  Owen  in  reply  to  this  assault,  wrote  his  "  Truth 
and  Innocence  vindicated;"  in  which,  after  repelling 
the  accusations  brought  forward  by  Parker,  he  exposes 
and  confutes  that  author's  principles.*  Parker,  in  his 
rejoinder,  poured  upon  Owen  the  coarsest  abuse,  calling 
him  "  the  great  bellwether  of  disturbance  and  sedition, 
and  the  viper  swelled  with  venom,  which  must  spit  or 
burst."  He  also  cast  upon  his  old  associates  more 
and  more  bitter  invective,  calling  them  "  the  most 
villanous  unsufiferable  sort  of  sanctified  fools,  knaves, 
and  unquiet  rebels,  that  ever  were  in  the  world  ;  "  f 
and  having  in  his  first  book  attacked  Dissenters  in 
general,  in  the  second  he  assailed  Independents  in 
particular,  quoting  against  Owen  several  extracts 
from  his  sermons.  That  Divine  made  no  reply ;  but 
another  formidable  combatant  appeared  on  his  side 
against  the  scurrilous  accuser.  As  the  High  Church 
party  could  boast  of  Samuel  Parker  who  knew  how 
to  lampoon  the  Puritans,  so  the  Liberals  of  that  period 
gloried  in  Andrew  Marvell,  who  could  quite  as  cleverly 
satirize  High  Churchmen.  In  his  "  Rehearsal  Trans- 
posed," he  carried  the  day,  and  tormented  beyond 
endurance  the  champions  of  despotism.  Everybody 
who  could  read,  from  the  King  to  the  artizan,  perused 
with  glee  the  pages  of  this  book,  so  that  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  Archbishop's  Chaplain  excited  derision 

*  Owen  writes  very  guardedly  in  reply  to  Parker's  doctrine  of 
the  magistrate's  power.     ("  Works,"  XXI.  209,  et  seq.) 
t  "  Life  and  Times,"  III.  42. 


436  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

through  a  much  wider  circle  than  was  ever  reached  by 
his  fooHsh  writings.  Parker,  however,  was  not  a  man 
easily  to  be  silenced,  nor  was  the  cause  he  undertook 
easily  to  be  crushed,  and  therefore  he  and  his  friends 
returned  to  the  onslaught,  and  soon  the  printers  were 
busy  with  a  number  of  pamphlets,  presenting  a 
catalogue  of  most  ridiculous  titles.  Marvell  rejoined, 
and  it  is  confessed  by  Parker  that,  at  the  end  of  the 
literary  encounter,  the  odds  and  victory  were  against 
him,  and  lay  on  Marvell's  side  :  the  style  of  warfare 
adopted  by  the  latter  can  scarcely  be  approved,  but  it 
was  in  the  fashion  of  the  times,  and  had  been  provoked 
by  an  unprincipled  assailant,  who,  it  may  be  hoped,  as 
it  is  intimated  by  one  sometimes  resembling  Parker  in 
virulence,  was  all  the  better  for  the  castigation  he 
received.*  This  remarkable  controversy  lasted  from 
1669  to  1673  ;  and  was  in  its  first  stage  when  the  new 
Conventicle  Act  appeared ;  and  reached  its  height 
whilst  the  debates  on  the  Indulgence,  the  Relief  Bill, 
and  the  Test  Act  agitated  Parliament  and  the  country. 
High  Churchmen  read  with  sympathy  the  pages  of  the 
assailant  of  Nonconformists,  and  they,  on  the  other 
hand,  suffering  from  local  persecution,  or  rejoicing  in 
Royal  indulgence,  pondered  Owen's  arguments,  or 
laughed  at  Marvell's  wit. 

In  the  year  1675,  Croft,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  pub- 
lished anonymously  "The  Naked  Truth,"  in  which 
he  maintained  the  sufficiency  of  the  Apostles'  Creed 
as  a  standard  of  faith,  and  protested  against  the  refine- 
ments of  Alexandrian  and  scholastic  philosophy.  At 
the  same  time  he  declined  submission  to  the  authority 

*  Anthony  Wood.  There  is  plenty  of  satire  in  the  two  books 
by  Marvell  ;  the  second  is  more  cutting  than  the  first,  but  it  is 
sometimes  coarser,  and  on  the  whole  wearisome  to  modern  readers. 


1675.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  437 

of  the  Fathers,  or  of  Councils,  although  paying  respect 
to  them  as  teachers  and  guides,  and  deprecated  the 
importance  attached  to  ceremonies,  pleading  for  such 
liberty  as  St.  Paul,  "that  great  grandfather  of  the 
Church,  allowed  his  children."  He  would  dispense 
with  using  the  surplice,  bowing  to  the  altar,  and 
kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  also  with  the  cross 
in  baptism,  and  the  ring  in  marriage.  He  advocated 
a  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book,  contended  that  all 
ministers  are  of  one  order,  and  believed  that  confirma- 
tion might  be  administered  by  priests  as  well  as  by 
prelates.  The  tract  concludes  with  a  charitable  ad- 
monition to  all  Nonconformists,  in  which  the  author, — 
after  pleading  his  own  desire  for  certain  changes,  yet 
confessing  he  saw  no  hope  of  being  successful, — most 
inconsistently  proceeds  to  exhort  his  Dissenting  readers, 
on  the  grounds  of  Christian  humility,  and  the  mischiefs 
of  separation,  immediately  to  submit  to  the  authority 
of  the  Church. 

It  has  often  been  the  fate  of  moderate  men  to  suffer 
from  condemnation  by  zealots  in  their  own  Church. 
Even  Popes  of  Rome,  when  taking  the  side  of  charity 
and  candour,  have  been  dishonoured  by  advocates  of 
the  Papacy,  and  Anastasius  H.,  for  his  mild  behaviour 
towards  the  Eastern  Church,  has  been  represented  by 
Cardinal  Baronius  as  the  victim  of  a  Divine  judgment. 
Dante,  too,  has  assigned  him  to  one  of  the  circles  of 
the  damned.  In  a  similar  spirit  contemporaries  assailed 
the  author  of  "  Naked  Truth."  "  Not  only  the  Churches, 
but  the  coffee-houses  rung  against  it ;  they  itinerated, 
like  excise  spies,  from  one  house  to  another,  and  some 
of  the  morning  and  evening  chaplains  burnt  their  lips 
with  perpetual  discoursing  it  out  of  reputation,  and 
loading  the    author,  whoever  he  were,  with  all   con- 


438  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XI. 

tempt,  malice,  and  obloquy."*  Gunning,  Bishop  of 
Ely,  attacked  it  in  a  sermon  which  he  preached  before 
the  King  ;  and  to  him  has  been  ascribed  a  pamphlet 
entitled  "  The  Author  of  Naked  Truth  Stript  Naked." 
It  also  met  with  animadversions  from  Dr.  Turner,  Head 
of  St.  John's,  Cambridge.  Still  there  were  those  of 
another  spirit  who  appreciated  the  calm  reasoning  and 
the  amiable  temper  of  the  Bishop  ;  and  Pearse,  who  is 
described  by  Wood  as  "a  lukewarm  Conformist," — 
because  he  could  not  join  in  reviling  his  Nonconformist 
brethren, — spoke  of  the  book  at  a  later  date,  in  his 
"Third  Plea  for  the  Nonconformists,"  as  a  Divine 
manifestation  of  a  primitive  Christian  spirit  of  love. 
Marvell  styled  the  writer  "judicious,  learned,  con- 
scientious, a  sincere  Protestant,  and  a  true  son,  if  not 
a  father  of  the  Church  of  England."  f 

*  "  Mr.  Smirke,  or  the  Divine  in  Mode."    By  Andrew  Marvell. 

t  Marvell's  "  Mr.  Smirke,"  which  was  an  answer  to  Turner's 
animadversions.  Three  other  books,  bearing  the  title  of  "  Naked 
Truth,"  headed  respectively  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  parts, 
were  published  afterwards,  but  not  by  Bishop  Croft. 


1669-167G.]    THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         439 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  state  of  the  Royal  family,  as  it  respects  religion 
in  England,  at  the  period  which  we  have  now  reached, 
constituted  the  principal  foundation  of  Roman  Catholic 
hope,  and  the  chief  source  of  Protestant  fear.  The 
Queen,  who  arrived  here  in  1662,  retained  the  faith 
of  her  childhood,  and,  very  naturally,  would  have  been 
glad  to  see  it  restored  in  the  land  of  her  adoption. 
The  King,  too  careless  and  profligate  to  be  affected  by 
any  really  pious  considerations,  probably  preferred  the 
Romish  to  any  other  kind  of  worship  ;  and  of  such  a 
preference  people  suspected  him  at  the  moment  he  was 
declaring  the  utmost  zeal  for  Protestantism.  Their 
suspicions  were  too  well  founded.  Certainly,  as  early 
as  the  year  1669,  he  entertained  the  idea  of  uniting 
himself  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  in  the  following 
year  he  signed  a  secret  treaty  with  the  King  of  France, 
in  which  he  pledged  himself  to  avow  his  conversion, 
whenever  it  should  appear  to  him  to  be  most  con- 
venient.* The  existence  and  provisions  of  that  com- 
pact, in  spite  of  the  utmost  endeavours  to  conceal  it, 
oozed  out  at  the  time  ;  f  but  now  that  history  has 
revealed  it  entirely,  with  many  of  its  attendant  private 

*  "  Life  of  James  II.,"  I.  441.     Dalrymple's  "  Memoirs,"  I.  70  ; 
III.  1,68. 
t  Sec  letters  in  "Phenix,"  I.  566.     Calamy's  "Life,"  I.  119. 


440  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 

circumstances,  we  discover  the  extreme  shamefulness 
of  the  whole  affair.  For,  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty, 
the  King-  of  England  became  a  pensioner  of  France, 
and  promised  to  make  war  upon  Holland,  with  which 
State  France  had  entered  into  friendship  and  alliance  ; 
the  negotiator  of  this  scandalous  arrangement  being 
no  other  than  Charles'  sister,  Henrietta,  Duchess  of 
Orleans,  whose  reputation  is  deeply  stained,  through 
her  being  involved  in  the  licentious  intrigues  of  Louis 
XIV.'s  court.  After  having  visited  her  brother  to 
accomplish  this  dishonourable  mission,  she  left  behind, 
as  an  agent  for  preserving  French  influence  over  his 
volatile  mind,  one  of  the  ladies  of  her  train,  named 
Ouerouaille,  who  became  mistress  to  the  licentious 
monarch,  and  is  so  notorious  in  the  disgraceful  history 
of  his  reign  as  Duchess  of  Portsmouth.* 

The  King's  brother  having,  by  means  of  Anglo- 
Catholic  instructors,  been  imbued  with  the  ideas  of 
Church  authority,  of  apostolical  traditions,  and  of  the 
Real  Presence,  had,  after  this  effective  preparation, 
taken  a  further  and  very  natural  step,  and  had  been 
reconciled  to  Rome  ;  yet  notwithstanding  this  fact  up 
to  Easter,  1671,  he  continued  outwardly  to  commune 
with  the  Established  Church  in  this  country.f  His  first 
Duchess,  Anne  Hyde,  daughter  of  Lord  Clarendon, 
had  practised  secret  confession  to  Dr.  Morley  from  her 
youth,  and,  after  her  marriage,  in  order  to  retain  or  to 
recover  the  fickle  attachment  of  her  husband,  she  had 
entered  into  close  communication  with  Popish  priests, 
and  had  expressed  a  disposition  to  renounce  Protes- 
tantism.J    She,  it  is  said,  preferred  an  unmarried  clergy, 

*  G.  P.  R.  James'  "  Life  of  Louis  XIV.,"  II.  171. 

t  Evelyn,  II.  88. 

X  Harris' "  Charles  II.,"  II.  81. 


1G69-1G76.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         441 

and  excused  the  Roman  Catholic  superstitions,  and  it 
would  appear  that,  for  some  months  before  her  death, 
she  ceased  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  ad- 
ministered by  the  Anglican  clergy.  Members  of  her 
family  sought  to  re-establish  her  Protestant  belief,  but 
in  vain,  and  in  her  last  illness  she  received  the  Eucharist 
from  the  hands  of  a  Franciscan  friar.*  James'  second 
Duchess,  Mary  of  Modena,  was  by  descent  and  educa- 
tion a  decided  Papist ;  and  his  marriage  with  that  lady 
being  extremely  unpopular,  provoked  the  opposition 
of  the  English  Parliament.  Thus,  at  the  time  of 
which  I  speak,  the  principal  members  of  the  Royal 
house,  next  to  the  King,  were  Romanists,  and  he  him- 
self was  known  to  sympathize  with  them  in  their 
religious  sentiments.  Added  to  these  circumstances 
was  the  fact  that  several  other  persons  in  high  estate 
were  sincerely  attached  to  the  same  faith  ;  a  love  to  it 
also  lingered  amongst  the  lower  ranks  in  some  parts 
of  England,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  Roman  Catholics 
were  "  bold  and  busy  "  in  their  endeavours  to  make 
converts.  What  they  did  they  had  to  do  by  stealth, 
persecution  met  them  everywhere,  yet,  with  a  heroism 
which  we  cannot  but  respect,  they  steadily  persevered. 
One  advocate  and  missionary  in  particular, — Abraham 
Woodhead,  who  early  commenced  his  work  in  England, 
— is  mentioned  with  honour  even  by  the  Oxford  historian, 
for  he  remarks,  with  regard  to  a  later  period,  that  the 
"  calm,  temperate,  and  rational  discussion  of  some  of 
the  most  weighty  and  momentous  controversies  under 
debate  between  the  Protestants  and  Romanists  rendered 
him  an  author  much  famed,  and  very  considerable  in 
the  esteem  of  both."  f     Hugh  Paulin  Cressey,  one  of 

*  Lingard,  XI.  356. 

t  Wood's  "Ath.  Ox.,"  II.  614.      The  article  on  Woodhead  is 
copious  and  interesting. 


442  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIL 

the  Queen's  chaplains,  was  also  active  in  the  same 
cause,  and  is  praised  for  the  candour,  plainness,  and 
decency  with  which  he  managed  controversy ;  *  and 
John  Gother,  another  zealous  polemic  on  the  side  of 
Rome,  published  in  support  of  the  doctrines  of  his 
Church,  seventeen  controversial,  and  twelve  spiritual 
tracts.t  That  Church  has  ever  acted  most  systemati- 
cally, carrying  out  a  ramified  method  of  operation,  and, 
at  the  time  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  the  priests 
in  England,  whether  secular  or  regular,  were  all  under 
effectual  guidance  and  control.  The  former  received 
their  direction  from  one  whom  they  called  "  the  head  of 
the  clergy,"  who  possessed  a  kind  of  Episcopal  power, 
both  he  and  they  being  subordinated  to  the  Papal  nuncio 
in  France,  and  the  internuncio  in  Flanders,  to  whom 
were  entrusted  the  oversight  of  the  missions  to  England 
and  Ireland.  Regular  priests,  of  the  order  of  St.  Bene- 
dict, of  St.  Augustine,  of  St.  Dominic,  of  St.  Francis,  and 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  were  subject  to  their  superiors 
respectively,  and,  in  whatever  they  did,  proceeded  ob- 
sequiously in  obedience  to  command  ;  not,  however, 
without  mutual  jealousy  and  strife,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  when  seculars  and  regulars,  the  two 
main  divisions  of  the  army,  kept  up  a  constant  rivalry 
in  the  spiritual  camp.  I  Even  in  a  lukewarm  Protestant 
country,  the  activity  and  increase  of  Romanism  could 
not  be  regarded  without  apprehension.  But  the  Pro- 
testants of  England  were  not  then  lukewarm.  The 
antipathy  cherished  by  an  earlier  generation  had  de- 

*   Chalmer's  "  Biographical  Dictionary." 

t  Butler's  "English  Catholics,"  IV.  425. 

\  This  account  of  the  working  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  Eng- 
land is  taken  from  the  "  MSS.  Travels  of  Cosmo,  the  third  Grand 
Duke  of  Tuscany,"  (1669),  printed  in  Appendix  to  Butler's 
"EngHsh  Cath.,"  III.  513. 


1669-167G.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         44S 

scended  to  the  present.  Nonconformists,  after  the 
Restoration,  continued  to  cherish  the  old  Puritan  horror 
of  the  Mother  of  Harlots  ;  they  read  Foxe's  Book  of 
Martyrs,  they  kept  alive  the  traditions  of  their  an- 
cestors under  Queen  Mary;  and  Gunpowder  Treason 
had  not  ceased  to  awaken  in  their  minds  the  most 
terrible  recollections.  Those  persons  in  the  Establish- 
ment who  cherished  Puritan  sympathies,  and  they 
were  not  few,  thought  of  Rome  in  the  same  way  as  the 
Dissenters  did  ;  and  other  persons,  on  different  grounds, 
felt  the  greatest  alarm  at  the  portents  of  the  times. 
Even  strong  Anglican  preferences  in  some  cases  were 
connected  with  an  intense  dislike  of  Romanism  ;  in 
bosoms  where  no  better  feeling  existed,  there  arose  a 
fear  of  its  return,  as  of  an  enemy  which  would  rob  the 
clergy  of  their  possessions.  The  prevailing  alarm  can 
be  easily  explained,  for  the  revival  of  Popery  ever 
appeared  to  Protestants  in  those  days  as  fraught  with 
disasters,  and  in  the  present  instance,  to  aggravate 
apprehension,  political  considerations  were  suggested 
respecting  the  designs  of  France,  then  the  ally  of  Rome 
in  the  worst  phases  of  its  despotism. 

The  feeling  against  Popery  manifested  itself  in  divers 
ways.  Books  were  published  exposing  the  evils  of  the 
system,  including  translations  of  Blaise  Pascal's  "  Pro- 
vincial Letters,"  and,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  amongst 
works  original,  solid,  judicious,  and  convincing,  written 
to  defend  the  principles  of  the  Reformation,  were  some 
of  a  very  unscrupulous  character,  full  of  the  most 
wretched  scurrility  and  invective.*  As  early  as  1667 
suggestions  were  made  to  His  Majesty's  Privy  Council 

*  Five  editions  of  Pascal  were  published  between  1658  and 
t688.  The  "Protestant  Ahnanack"  for  1668  is  a  disgraceful 
pubhcation. 


444  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 

to  issue  processes  in  the  Exchequer  against  Popish 
recusants,  to  suppress  all  masses  throughout  the  country, 
except  those  at  the  chapels  of  the  Queen,  and  of  the 
foreign  ambassadors,  to  banish  all  native  priests,  and  to 
prevent  the  education  of  English  children  in  Catholic 
countries.  All  this  was  proposed  to  be  done  by  means 
of  a  Royal  declaration,  which  should  "  leave  some  little 
door  of  hope  to  Dissenting  Protestants,  of  a  further 
degree  of  ease  from  Parliament,  which  the  King  would 
be  glad  should  be  found  out."*  In  the  autumn  of  1667, 
there  ran  a  report  that  the  Presbyterian,  Mr.  Prynne,  in 
his  zeal  against  Popery,  had  written  to  Bath  respecting 
the  Papists  resident  there,  but  one  of  Evelyn's  corre- 
spondents, who  sympathized  with  these  sufferers,  states 
that  the  suspected  were  only  few — "  not  above  a  dozen 
simple  women,  and  three  or  four  inconsiderable  men." 
He  then  strives  to  turn  the  tables  upon  the  accuser,  by 
speaking  of  "  dangerous  fanatics,"  who  "  overwhelm  the 
country,"  defy  the  Government,  and  reproach  the  King, 
winding  up  his  communication  in  the  following  strain  : 
"  That  all  the  late  firebrands  should  be  set  on  horse- 
back, especially  those  that  horsed  themselves  to  join 
with  the  Dutch  and  French ;  and  that  all  the  late 
sufferers  should  complete  their  martyrdom.  Some  men 
were  born  in  a  tempest,  can  see  mountains  through 
millstones,  take  alarm  at  the  creeping  of  a  snail,  and 
throw  open  the  gates  to  let  in  the  Tartars,  and  so  their 
end  must  be  like  their  beginning.  But  Mr.  P[rynne] 
cannot  hear  on  that  ear,  and  has  such  accurate  skill  in 
the  laws,  that  he  can  find  high  treason  in  a  bullrush, 
and  innocence  in  a  scorpion."  f 

Royal  proclamations  touching  Jesuits  and  Romanists, 

*  "State  Papers,  Dom.,"  1667,  Sept.  6th.     ("  Cal.") 
t  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,"  1667,  Oct.  28th.     ("  Cal.") 


1G76.]  THE   CHURCH  OF    THE  RESTORATION.  445 

extorted  from  the  King  by  the  representations  of  his 
Ministers,  of  the  Bishops,  and  of  Parliament,  reflect 
correctly  the  opinions  of  the  nation  and  of  the  Church, 
but  the  utter  insincerity  of  them,  as  proceeding  from 
Charles,  is  sufficiently  manifest.  It  was  felt  at  the  time 
by  Romanists  themselves  that  he  who  sat  upon  the 
throne  remained,  after  all,  their  fast  friend  ;  and,  to 
arguments  for  the  abolition  of  State  penalties  against 
recusants,  it  was  cleverly  replied  that  they  formed  "  a 
bow  strung  and  bended,  and  an  arrow  put  into  it,  but 
none  could  shoot  but  His  Majesty."  *  The  storm  of 
public  indignation  manifestly  increased  with  the 
advance  of  time,  and  when  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
traversed  Yorkshire,  raising  recruits  for  his  regiments, 
so  jealous  of  Popery  were  the  people  there,  that  scarcely 
a  man  would  enlist  until  he  had  gone  with  the  recruit- 
ing officer  and  publicly  taken  the  Holy  Sacrament,  as 
an  evidence  of  his  Protestantism.  In  the  autumn,  as 
the  period  returned  for  commemorating  the  frustration 
of  Gunpowder  Plot,  the  Pope  with  great  solemnity  was 
burnt  in  several  places  within  the  City  of  London,  a 
barbarism  which  the  Roman  Catholic  who  reports  the 
circumstance  thought  no  nation  but  the  Hollanders 
could  have  been  guilty  of,  yet  members  of  Parliament 
assisted  on  the  occasion,  but  whether  it  proceeded  from 
wine  or  from  zeal  the  informant  could  not  say.  Bon- 
fires blazed  on  the  fifth  of  November  all  the  way  from 
Charing  Cross  to  Whitechapel  with  a  fury  unknown  for 
thirty  years.f  As  the  next  year  opened,  Charles'  con- 
sulted with  the  Bishops  touching  the  subject  of  this 
immense  excitement,  assuring  them  of  his  readiness  to 

*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.  Chas.  II."'   Letter  from  W.  Aston,  1676, 
April  3rd. 

t  "State  Papers,"  June  6th,  Nov.  io-i3th. 


446  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  LCiiap.  XIL 

do  all  in  his  power  for  the  suppression  of  Popery,  for 
which  purpose  he  thought  it  fit  to  have' the  assistance 
and  advice  of  the  Right  Reverend  Fathers,  and  he 
wished  them  first  to  debate  upon  the  subject  amongst 
themselves,  and  then  to  inform  him  what  best  could  be 
done  for  maintaining  the  interests  of  the  Church  of 
England,  as  by  law  established. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1675,  the  Protestant 
agitation  received  a  new  impulse  from  a  debate  in  Par- 
liament relative  to  an  assault  by  a  priest,  named  St. 
Germain,  upon  one  Monsieur  Luzancy,  who,  after 
being  a  French  Jesuit,  had  become  a  minister  of  the 
Church  of  England.  This  zealous  convert,  preaching 
at  the  Savoy,  had  bitterly  attacked  the  errors  which  he 
had  repudiated,  and,  having  printed  his  controversial 
sermon,  he  stated  that  he  was  visited  by  St.  Germain, 
who,  with  three  ruffians,  forced  him  to  sign  a  recanta- 
tion of  his  faith.  This  story  was  told  to  Sir  John 
Reresby,  who  immediately  related  it  to  the  House  of 
Commons.*  Luzancy,  examined  by  a  Committee, 
added  further  particulars,  inflaming  the  House  to  the 
last  degree,  by  the  statement  that  two  French  Protes- 
tant merchants,  residing  in  the  Metropolis,  had  received 
from  their  Popish  neighbours  a  threat,  that  soon  the 
streets  of  the  City  would  flow  with  torrents  of  Protestant 
blood.  Some  immediate  results  of  the  excitement 
appeared  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  an  order  pro- 
ceeded from  the  Commons  to  the  Lord  Chief  Justice 
to  issue  his  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of  all 
Catholic  priests.!     I^'^    the  following  summer.   Popish 

*  This  is  Reresby's  own  account.  Ralph  follows  him,  but  in 
the  imperfect  reports  of  the  debates  in  the  "  Pari.  Hist."  (IV.  780), 
the  statement  in  the  House  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  Mr. 
Russel. 

t  Lingard,  XII.  72. 


1C7G.]  THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX.  447 

books  were  seized  at  Stationers'  Hall,  by  order  of  the 
Privy  Council  ;  and  in  the  autumn,  authority  was  given 
to  watch  the  doors  of  chapels  allowed  for  the  use  of 
the  Queen,  and  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and  to  observe 
such  of  His  Majesty's  subjects,  not  being  in  the  service 
of  those  illustrious  personages,  as  attended  the  service 
there  performed.  Those  who  watched  were  not  to  stop 
or  question  any  as  they  went  in,  but  they  were  to 
apprehend  them  instantly  as  they  came  out,  and  if  that 
could  not  be  accomplished,  the  names  of  delinquents 
were  to  be  ascertained  and  returned.*  It  may  here  be 
mentioned  that,  at  the  time  when  these  measures  were 
employed,  Protestants  formed  the  wildest  estimates  of  ^ 
the  numbers  of  Papists.  Some  one  reported  that  as 
many  as  20,000  or  30,000  of  them  were  living  in  the 
parish  of  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields,  yet  in  a  survey, 
made  by  order  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  the 
year  1676,  it  is  affirmed  that,  in  this  much-suspected 
parish,  only  600  Papists  could  be  found,  and  that  not 
more  than  11,870  were  discovered  in  the  whole  pro- 
vince.f 

Parliament,  which  in  1676  had  been  sitting  fifteen 
years,  at  that  time  laboured  under  a  very  bad 
character.  It  w^as  commonly  said,  that  one-third  of 
the  Commons  were  dependent  upon  Government  and 
the  Court,  that  large  bribes  were  paid  for  votes 
and  speeches,  and  that  the  Lord  Treasurer  declared 
members  came  about  him  at  the  end  of  every  session, 

*  "  State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1676,  Oct.  27th. 

t  Glanvill's  "Zealous  and  Impartial  Protestant,"  p.  46.  This 
and  other  instances  of  exaggeration  are  given  in  "  The  Happy 
Future  State  of  England,"  p.  140.  It  should  be  stated  that  the 
author  of  this  last  work  endeavours  to  make  out  the  Roman 
Catholics  to  have  been  as  few  as  possible.  The  population  of 
England,  and  the  relative  proportion  of  different  classes  of 
religionists,  will  be  noticed  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 


448  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 

like  so  many  jackdaws  clamouring  for  cheese.  Com- 
plaints were  rife  of  depression  in  trade,  and  of  the  em- 
barrassment throughout  the  country,  consequent  on  the 
prolonged  existence  of  the  same  House,  whilst  especial 
stress  was  laid  upon  the  unreasonableness  of  a  number 
of  men  being  for  such  a  length  of  time  allowed  to 
engross  Parliamentary  representation.  Some  of  these 
arguments  were  eloquently  exhibited  by  the  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury,  who  had  ends  of  his  own  to  serve  by 
a  dissolution,  since  he  trusted  by  means  of  it  to  be 
carried  back  to  power  ;  and  in  addition  to  political 
reasonings  this  clever  politician  held  out  to  all  sorts  of 
religionists,  hopes  the  most  inconsistent,  and,  taken 
altogether,  perfectly  absurd,  as  bribes  to  secure  support 
in  the  approaching  struggle.  Careful  to  throw  out  a  bait 
to  the  Church  of  England,  by  assuring  her  that  a  new 
Parliament  would  preserve  her  honours,  her  dignities, 
and  her  revenues,  would  make  her  a  great  protectrix, 
and  asylum  of  Protestants  throughout  Europe,  and  would 
increase  the  maintenance  of  the  Ministry  in  Corpora- 
tions and  large  towns  ;  Shaftesbury  also,  strange  to 
say,  encouraged  the  Roman  Catholics  to  expect  de- 
liverance from  the  pressure  of  penal  laws  under  which 
they  groaned,  if  they  would  only  be  contented,  for  the 
sake  of  their  religion,  to  forego  access  to  Court,  promo- 
tion to  office,  and  employment  in  arms.*  Certainly 
the  existing  Parliament  had  shown  an  unconquerable 
hatred  to  Popery,  and  perhaps  Romanists  had  more  to 
fear  than  to  hope  from  its  continuance,  and  for  this 
reason,  amongst  others,  the  Duke  of  York  advocated  a 
dissolution,  and  appeared,  to  that  exent,  amongst  the 

*  "  The  debate  or  arguments  for  dissolving  this  present  Parlia- 
ment," 1675.  Written  by  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury.  ("Pari. 
Hist."  IV.  ixxviii.) 


1677.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  sa'^ 

supporters  of  the  Earl.  The  Earl  at  the  same  time 
threw  out  his  nets  so  very  wide  as  to  aim  at  catching 
Dissenters,  telling  them  that  whereas  they  had  suffered 
so  much  of  late  from  persecuting  laws,  a  new  House  of 
Commons  would  procure  them  "  ease,  liberty,  and  pro- 
tection." He  had,  ever  since  he  parted  with  the  Great 
Seal  in  1673,  professed  the  utmost  love  for  Protestant- 
ism, and  had  been  proclaimed  by  its  zealots  as  the 
saviour  of  the  faith,  it  being  profanely  said  that  wher- 
ever the  Gospel  should  be  preached  that  which  he  had 
done  should  be  told  as  a  memorial  of  him.*  Influenced 
by  the  incredibly  high  religious  reputation  of  this  Pro- 
tean statesman,  also,  probably  moved  by  his  flatteries, 
certainly  bound  to  him  by  party  ties,  the  Nonconformist 
Lord  Wharton  took  his  place  amongst  the  helpers  of 
"  the  chief  engineer,"  as  the  Duke  of  York  styled  the 
Ex-Chancellor.  Upon  a  debate  respecting  an  address 
to  His  Majesty  to  dissolve  Parliament,  His  Royal  High- 
ness and  Lord  Wharton  joined  with  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  and  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  in  supporting 
it,  the  non-contents  carrying  their  point  only  by  a 
majority  of  two.f 

Parliament  was  prorogued  on  the  22nd  of  Novem- 
ber, for  fifteen  months,  and  as  soon  as  it  met  again, 
on  the  15  th  of  February,  1677,  the  party  in  opposi- 
tion returned  to  the  charge ;  but  now,  deserted  by 
the  Duke  of  York,  the  party  was  led  by  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  who  delivered  a  famous  speech  to  prove 
that  Parliament  had  been  virtually  dissolved  by  so  long 
a  prorogation.  What  the  Duke  said  was  construed  into 
an  insult,  for  which  one  of  the  peers  moved  that  he 
should  be   called   to   the   bar,  when  the   motion  was 

*  Campbell's  "Lives."  IV.  185. 
t  "Pari.  Hist."  IV.  801. 


45°  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 

resented  by  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  the  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury, and  Lord  Wharton,  all  three  supporting  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham.  The  Lords,  who  thus  led  the  oppo- 
sition, were  told  that  what  they  had  done  was  ill- 
advised,  and  they  were  ordered  to  beg  pardon  of  the 
House,  and  of  His  Majesty.  Upon  which,  refusing  to 
comply,  they  were  committed  to  the  Tower.  Bucking- 
ham slipped  out  of  the  House,  but  surrendered  himself 
the  next  day.*  The  Committal  produced  a  great  ex- 
citement— in  which  religious  people,  especially  Non- 
conformists, largely  shared,  for  they  looked  up  to  two 
of  these  noblemen  as  particular  friends  ;  and  a  fugitive 
sheet  written  at  the  time,  without  date  or  names,  has 
preserved  certain  memoranda  concerning  the  prisoners, 
from  which  it  appears  that  several  Quakers  were  at 
that  time  in  communication  with  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham.f 

In  the  month  of  June,  Buckingham,  Wharton,  and 
Salisbury,  wearied  out  with  their  confinement,  and 
disappointed  of  their  discharge  at  the  end  of  the 
Session,  by  the  adjournment  of  the  Houses,  recanted 
what  they  had  spoken,  professed  repentance  of  their 
error,  and  sought  pardon  of  His  Majesty.  They  were 
liberated  accordingly,  but  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, 
because  he  refused  to  make  any  submission,  and  applied 
to  the  King's  Bench  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus^  was 
doomed  to  a  longer  captivity  ;  yet  at  last  he  obtained 
his  liberty  in  the  month  of  February,  1678,  only,  how- 
ever, by  kneeling  down  at  the  bar  of  the  House,  and 
humbly  asking  their  Lordships'  pardon. 

The  power  of  the  party,  whose  leaders  had  thus  for 
a  while  been    banished    from   the   House,  was    by  no 

*  "  Life  of  James  II.,"  I.  505.     "  Pari.  Hist."  IV.  814,  824. 
t  "State  Papers,"  April,  1677. 


1G77.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOy.  451 

means  crushed.  Indeed  it  was  but  little  diminished, 
and,  therefore  Danby,  the  Lord  Treasurer,  at  the  head 
of  the  Ministry,  wishing  to  outbid  his  rival  Shaftesbury 
in  a  contest  for  popularity,  and  also  following  his  own 
chosen  policy,  which  had  throughout  been  anti-Papal, 
now  introduced,  and  that  with  the  concurrence  of  the 
Bishops,  two  measures  as  additional  bulwarks  against 
Papal  aggression.  The  iirst  contemplated  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  Catholic  prince  occupying  the  throne  :  it 
provided,  in  case  of  his  refusing  a  severe  test  in 
the  form  of  a  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantia- 
tion,  that  the  Bishops,  upon  a  vacancy  occurring  in 
their  number,  should  name  three  persons,  one  of  whom 
the  Sovereign  was  at  liberty  to  select  for  the  empty 
see  ;  but  if  he  did  not  make  the  selection  within  thirty 
days,  the  person  first  named  should  take  possession  ; 
that  the  two  Archbishops  should  present  to  all  livings 
in  the  Royal  gift  ;  and  that  the  children  of  the  Mon- 
arch, from  the  age  of  seven  to  the  age  of  fourteen, 
should  be  under  the  guardianship  of  the  two  Arch- 
bishops, with  the  Bishops  of  London,  Durham,  and 
Winchester.  The  second  measure,  under  title  of  an 
Act  for  the  more  effectual  conviction  and  prosecution 
of  Popish  recusants,  provided  that  such  Popish  recu- 
sants as  might  register  themselves  should  pay  a  yearly 
fine  of  the  twentieth  part  of  their  incomes  to  a  fund  for 
supporting  poor  converts  to  Protestantism,  and  should, 
on  that  condition,  be  exempt  from  all  other  penalties, 
except  ineligibility  to  hold  office,  civil  or  military,  or  to 
perform  the  office  of  guardians  or  executors.  Lay  per- 
verters  of  Protestants  should  have  the  option  of  ab- 
juring the  realm  ;  clergymen  who  had  taken  Romish 
orders  might,  at  His  Majesty's  pleasure,  be  imprisoned 
for   life,   instead   of  being  made  to   suffer  the  higher 


452 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 


penalty  for  treason,  and  the  children  of  deceased 
Catholics  should  be  brought  up  in  the  Reformed 
Church.*  But  these  measures  adopted  by  the  Lords, 
when  submitted  to  the  Lower  House,  so  far  from  satis- 
fying the  members,  aroused  their  most  determined 
opposition.  With  regard  to  the  first  measure  they 
affirmed  it  to  be  a  Bill  for  Popery,  not  a  Bill  against 
it.  They  said  its  face  was  covered  with  spots,  and, 
therefore,  it  wore  a  vizard.  "  It  is  an  ill  thing,"  re- 
marked Andrew  Marvell,  "  and  let  us  be  rid  of  it  as 
soon  as  we  can."  He  compared  it  to  a  private  Bill 
brought  into  the  House,  for  the  ballast-shore  at  Yarrow 
Sleake,  regarding  which  some  one  said,  "  the  shore  will 
narrow  the  river  ;  "  another,  "  it  will  widen  it ;  "  a  third, 
observing,  people  should  not  play  tricks  with  naviga- 
tion. Nor  ought  they  to  do  so  with  religion,  he  added. 
For,  as  it  was  clear,  the  Bill  for  the  ballast-shore  would 
benefit  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Durham,  so  whether 
this  Bill  would  or  would  not  prevent  Popery,  he  was 
sure  it  would  increase  the  power  of  the  Bishops.f  The 
second  measure  was  pronounced  to  be  virtually  a  tole- 
ration of  Popery,  forasmuch  as  Papists  were  to  have 
liberty  granted  them  if  they  would  only  pay  for  it. 
The  object  was  monstrous.  The  scheme  could  not  be 
mended.  It  would  remain  "  an  unsavoury  thing,  stuck 
with  a  primrose."  They  might  as  well  try  to  "  make 
a  good  fan  out  of  a  pig's  tail."  "  Is  there  a  man  in  this 
house,"  it  was  asked,  "  that  dares  to  open  his  mouth  in 
support  of  such  a  measure  .^  "     So  signal  was  the  defeat 

*  Lingard,  XII.  96,  97.  The  Resolutions  on  which  these  Bills 
were  founded  are  contained  in  the  "  Lords'  Journals,"  1677, 
February  21st  and  22nd. 

t  March  20th,  "  Pari.  Hist."  IV.  853-857.  The  same  History 
(IV.  858;  takes  notice  on  the  29th  of  March  of  Marvell's  boxing 
Sir  Philip  Harcourt's  ear  for  stumbling  on  his  foot. 


1G77.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  453 

of  the  attempt  that  we  find  in  the  Journals  these  words, 
"  Upon  the  reading  of  the  said  Bill,  and  opening  the 
substance  thereof  to  the  House,  it  appeared  to  be 
much  different  from  the  title,  and  thereupon  the  House, 
nemiiie  contradlcente,  rejected  the  same."  * 

The  Commons  the  same  day  read  a  third  time  a  Bill 
framed  to  prevent  the  growth  of  Popery,  enacting  that 
a  refusal  to  repudiate  transubstantiation  should  be 
deemed  a  sufficient  proof  of  recusancy,  and  should 
entail  all  its  consequences.  This  contrivance,  said  its 
advocates,  is  "  firm,  strong,  and  good,"  whilst  that  of 
the  Lords  is  "  slight,  and  good  for  nothing,"  it  is  like 
David  coming  out  against  Goliath  ;  \  but  the  Lords 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  David  of  the 
Commons.  The  Lower  House  urged  attention  to  the 
Bill,  but  in  vain,  the  Upper  House  did  not  take  the 
slightest  notice  of  what  had  been  sent  to  them,  and 
the  Bill  for  suppressing  the  growth  of  Popery  fell  to  the 
ground.  It  is  worth  observing  that,  at  the  same  period, 
a  Bill  which  passed  the  House  of  Lords,  described  on 
one  day  as  a  Bill  for  "obliging  persons  to  baptize  their 
children  " — on  another  as  "  an  Act  concerning  baptism 
and  catechising  "  :j: — met  with  a  like  fate,  and  fell  into 
the  vast  limbo  of  abortive  Parliamentary  schemes. 
But  the  two  Houses  during  this  Session  united  in  three 
important  Acts,  which  were  passed  just  before  the 
Easter  adjournment. 

The  first  was  for  the  better  observance  of  the  Lord's 
Day  ;  and  the  reader,  who  perhaps  associates  all  rigid 
legislation  of  that  kind  with  Puritan  zealots,  will  be 
surprised  to  find  that  the  Parliament  of  the  Restoration, 
embodying  in  many  respects  the  reactionary  spirit  of 

*  "  Pari.  Hist."  IV.  862.     "Journals,"  1677,  April  4th. 
t  Ibid.,  863.     "  Lords' Journals,"  April  13th  ;  JNIay  26th. 
X  "  Lords' Journals,"  April  12th,  13th,  14th. 


454 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 


the  times  did,  in  this  particular,  actually  follow  the  pre- 
cedents set  by  Commonwealth  statesmen.  The  new 
Statute  confirmed  existing  Acts  for  requiring  attend- 
ance at  Church,  and  ordained  "that  all,  and  every 
person  and  persons  whatsoever,  should,  on  every  Lord's 
Day,  apply  themselves  to  the  observation  of  the  same, 
by  exercising  themselves  thereon  in  the  duties  of  piety 
and  true  religion,  publicly  and  privately."  For  exer- 
cising their  worldly  callings  everybody  above  the  age 
of  fourteen  was  to  forfeit  five  shillings,  goods  cried  in 
the  streets  or  publicly  exposed  for  sale  were  to  be  for- 
feited. No  one  could  travel  without  special  warrant, 
under  a  penalty  of  twenty  shillings.  The  employment 
of  a  boat  or  wherry  incurred  a  fine  of  five  shillings,  and 
those  who  were  not  able  to  pay  these  fines  had  to  sit 
in  the  stocks.  No  Hundred  need  answer  for  a  robbery 
committed  on  a  person  who  dared  to  travel  on  the 
Lord's  Day  without  license,  no  writs  were  then  to  be 
served  except  for  treason  ;  but  both  the  dressing  of 
meat  in  private  houses,  and  the  sale  of  it  at  inns  and 
cook-shops,  were  specially  excepted  from  the  operation 
of  the  law.  It  is  true  that  fines  were  less  in  amount 
than  they  had  been  under  the  Commonwealth,  and  the 
exceptions  with  regard  to  inns  and  cook-shops,  and 
the  dressing  of  food  on  the  Lord's  Day,  showed  some 
little  relaxation  ;  but  the  prohibition  of  travelling,  as  well 
as  of  trading,  proves  that  zeal  for  the  strict  observance 
of  Sunday  had  been  inherited  from  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment by  its  successor  under  Charles  IL  Acts  for 
uniting  parishes,  for  rebuilding  churches,  and  for  the 
better  maintenance  of  Metropolitan  Incumbents,  had 
been  passed  in  1670;  and  now  a  general  Act  received 
the  Royal  assent  for  the  improvement  of  small  livings.* 

*  This  Act  should  be  considered  in  connection  with  what  is 
said  on  the  same  subject  in  a  preceding  part  of  this  History. 


1678.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  455 

The  last  of  the  three  enactments  alluded  to  consisted 
in  the  repeal  of  the  law  dc  Hceretico  Coniburendo,  which 
had  kindled  so  many  fires  in  the  Marian  age.  That 
form  of  punishment  was  regarded  by  Protestants  with 
a  natural  and  salutary  horror,  the  statutory  sanction  of 
it  was  now  swept  away,  not  only  with  a  burst  of  indig- 
nation against  it,  as  a  hateful  relic  of  Popish  intolerance, 
but  with  a  prudent  fear  lest,  if  the  law  remained  un- 
altered, it  might  some  day,  under  a  Popish  Sovereign — 
a  contingency  which  was  ever  looming  before  the  eyes 
of  the  nation — be  revived  for  a  rekindling  of  the  Smith- 
field  fires.  But  the  repeal  did  not  proceed  so  far  as  is 
generally  supposed,  for  the  Lords  made  some  amend- 
ments in  the  Bill,  and  added  a  proviso,  perpetuating 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  in  cases  of 
atheism,  blasphemy,  heresy,  or  schism,  and  sanctioning 
excommunication  and  other  ecclesiastical  penalties, 
extending  even  to  death,  in  such  sort  as  they  might  have 
done  before  the  making  of  this  new  Act.  In  this  form 
it  was  agreed  to  by  the  Commons,  and  received  the 
Royal  assent. 

The  Houses  were  adjourned  in  the  month  of  May, 
and  again  in  the  month  of  July ;  nor  did  they  meet 
any  more  for  business  until  the,  middle  of  the  month  of 
January,  1678.  These  adjournments  produced  in  the 
Lower  House,  as  might  be  expected,  long  and  exciting 
debates.  The  state  of  the  nation,  the  removal  of  evil 
counsellors,  and  an  address  of  advice  to  His  Majesty 
that  he  would  declare  war  with  France,  also  occupied 
considerable  attention;  but  if,  under  these  circum- 
stances, there  occurred  some  little  ebb  in  the  tide  of 
opposition  to  Popery,  the  flow  of  the  waters  soon 
followed  with  redoubled  force.  For,  in  the  month  of 
April,  we  find  the  Commons  engaged  in  the  considera- 


456 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XII. 


tion  of  a  report,  which  it  must  have  taken  much  time 
and  labour  to  prepare,— a  report  containing  the  names 
of  Popish  priests,  of  those  by  whom  they  were  kept, 
of  the  chapels  and  other  places  where  mass  was  said, 
in  the  County  of  Monmouth  :  also  of  the  names  of 
Justices  of  the  Peace  in  Wales  and  Northumberland 
who  were  Papists,  or  suspected  to  be  so,  and,  lastly, 
of  proceedings  which  had  been  carried  on  in  the  Court 
of  Exchequer  against  Popish  recusants.  The  docu- 
ment whilst,  no  doubt,  reflecting  the  fears  of  Protestants 
respecting  Papists,  also  records  facts  which  show  that, 
in  spite  of  persecuting  laws,  the  Roman  Catholic  re- 
ligion retained  a  strong  hold  upon  many  people  in 
certain  parts  of  the  country.  For  one  of  the  witnesses, 
whose  evidence  is  reported,  swore,  that  she  had  heard 
a  priest  say  mass  forty  times,  had  received  the  sacra- 
ment from  him,  had  seen  him  administer  it  to  a  hundred 
people,  and  that,  at  a  service  which  she  had  attended, 
"  the  crowd  was  so  great,  that  the  loft  was  forced  to 
be  propped,  lest  it  should  fall  down  under  the  weight."  * 
Immediately  afterwards  the  Commons  expressed  to 
the  Lords,  in  confidence,  a  strong  conviction  that  the 
growth  of  Popery  arose  from  a  laxity  in  the  admini- 
stration of  laws  against  it. 

After  a  prorogation,  on  the  1 3th  of  May,  the  opening 
of  the  sixteenth  session  of  Parliament  followed,  on  the 
23rd  of  the  same  month,  when  Lord  Chancellor  Finch 
sought  to  calm  public  apprehension  by  observing,  that 
it  was  a  scandal  to  the  Protestant  religion,  when  men 
so  far  distrusted  the  truth  and  power  of  it  as  to  be 
alarmed  about  its  safety,  after  so  many  laws  had  been 
enacted  for  its  protection,  and  after  all  the  miraculous 

*  "  Commons'  Journals,"  April  29th. 


1678.]  THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.  457 

deliverances  which  it  had  experienced.*  The  next 
month  saw  the  Commons  again  pkmged  into  the  old 
controversy,  whilst  they  discussed  a  Bill  for  the  exclu- 
sion of  Papists  from  both  Houses,  unless  they  would 
take  the  Oaths  of  Allegiance  and  of  Supremacy,  and 
accept  the  test  against  transubstantiation,  in  other 
words  except  they  would  turn  Protestants.!  The  usual 
round  of  arguments  reappeared,  and  once  more  revolved 
through  their  orbits ;  but  this  Bill,  like  some  of  its  pre- 
decessors, fell  through,  in  consequence  of  further  pro- 
rogation, after  a  grant  of  supplies,  upon  the  8th  of 
July. 

*  "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  980. 

t  June  1 2th.     "  Pari.  Hist.,"  IV.  990. 


458  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIIL 


CHAPTER   XIIL 

Dr.  Gilbert  Sheldon,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
died  on  the  9th  of  November,  1677.  Illustrations  have 
been  afforded  of  his  influence  and  activity  at  the  time 
of  the  Restoration,  of  his  conduct  during  the  plague 
year,  of  the  course  which  he  adopted  in  relation  to  the 
great  ecclesiastical  questions  of  his  day,  and  of  the 
general  spirit  of  his  clerical  policy  ;  but  some  further 
notice  is  requisite  respecting  the  character  of  a  man,  who 
took  so  conspicuous  a  part  in  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  England.  Sheldon,  according  to 
Burnet,  was  esteemed  a  learned  man  before  the  Wars, 
but  he  was  afterwards  engaged  so  deep  in  politics,  that 
scarce  any  prints  remained  of  what  he  had  been.  He  was 
a  very  dexterous  man  in  business,  had  a  great  quickness 
of  apprehension,  and  a  very  true  judgment.  He  was 
a  generous  and  charitable  man.  He  had  a  great 
pleasantness  of  conversation,  perhaps  too  great.  He 
had  an  art,  which  was  peculiar  to  him,  of  treating  all 
who  came  to  him  in  a  most  obliging  manner,  but  few 
depended  much  on  his  professions  of  friendship.  He 
seemed  not  to  have  a  deep  sense  of  religion,  if  any  at 
all ;  and  spoke  of  it  most  commonly,  as  of  an  engine 
of  Government  and  a  matter  of  policy.  By  this  means, 
the  King  came  to  look  on  him  as  a  wise  and  honest 
clergyman.*     An  admission  to  the  same  effect  is  made 

*  "  Hist,  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  177. 


1C62-1G77.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       459 

unconsciously  by  Samuel  Parker,  the  Archbishop's 
chaplain  and  friend.  For,  after  affirming  that  Sheldon 
was  a  man  of  undoubted  piety,  he  observes,  "that 
though  he  was  very  assiduous  at  prayers,  yet  he  did 
not  set  so  high  a  value  upon  them  as  others  did,  nor 
regarded  so  much  worship,  as  the  use  of  worship,  placing 
the  chief  point  of  religion  in  the  practice  of  a  good  life." 
The  ideas  of  a  man's  character  conveyed  by  language 
of  this  sort  must  be  interpreted  by  our  knowledge  of 
the  writer ;  and,  knowing  what  we  do  of  Parker,  we 
are  justified  in  regarding  what  he  says  as  a  confirma- 
tion of  Burnet's  opinion.  To  use  an  expression  which 
occurs  in  a  letter  from  Henry  VII.  on  the  translation  of 
Wareham  from  London  to  Canterbury,  Sheldon  showed 
himself  to  be  largely  endued  with  "  cunning  and  worldly 
wisdom."  *  Genial  and  social  in  his  habits  he  main- 
tained a  splendid  hospitality,!  and  in  all  his  intercourse 
it  was  apparent  that  he  had  seen  much  of  mankind, 
thoroughly  understood  human  nature,  and  knew  exactly 
how  to  make  himself  agreeable  to  those  whom  he  wished 
to  please.  Addicted  to  a  free-and-easy  manner  of  living, 
inconsistent  with  the  character  of  a  clergyman,  he  is 
reported  as  having  on  particular  occasions  sanctioned 
some  very  vulgar  buffoonery  at  the  expense  of  the 
Puritans.^  Keen,  clever,  polite,  and  politic,  knowing 
well  how  to  compass  his  ends,  he   manifested  at  the 

*  Hook's  "Archbishops."     Second  series,  I.  173. 

t  Hammond,  in  1654,  speaks  of  Sheldon's  being  "very  good 
company."  ("  Letter  in  Hark  MSS.,"  21,  printed  in  "  Ecclesiastic," 
April,  1853. 

X  See  Pepys'  account  of  a  dinner  party  at  Lambeth,  "  Diary," 
May  14,  1669.  He  tells  disgraceful  stories  about  Sheldon 
which  were  current  at  the  time  ;  and,  it  should  be  remembered, 
that  although  Sheldon  at  length  rebuked  Charles  for  his  intimacy 
with  Lady  Castlemaine,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  had  before 
broken  silence  as  to  the  shameful  libertinism  of  the  Court. 


46o  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

same  time  his  utter  want  of  those  impulses,  motives, 
and  aims,  which,  above  all,  ought  to  guide  men  who 
profess  to  be  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ.  Sheldon 
seems  to  have  been  fitted  to  grace  a  drawing-room,  to 
sustain  the  position  of  a  country  gentleman,  and  to 
take  a  part  in  State  affairs,  but  he  was  plainly  unfit 
to  preside  over  the  Church  of  England.  His  half- 
recumbent  figure,  as  represented  on  his  monument  in 
the  parish  church  of  Croydon,  before  the  fire,  his  round 
face  resting  on  his  left  hand,  his  countenance  not  of 
severe  expression,  but  rather  genial,  easy,  and  good- 
humoured,  and  his  gracefully  flowing  robes,  are  all  in 
harmony  with  the  idea  of  a  man  of  luxurious  habits, 
and  of  pleasant  manners  :  but  the  mitre  on  his  head  is 
out  of  place,  and  he  has  no  business  with  the  crozier 
at  his  side.*  His  course  of  life  as  a  steady,  persistent, 
heartless  persecutor  of  Nonconformists  eclipses  his 
courtesies  and  charities.  He  was  not  a  persecutor  of 
the  same  school  with  Laud  of  Canterbury,  or  Cyril  of 
Alexandria.  No  strong  convictions  of  doctrine,  no 
zeal  for  discipline,  influenced  him  in  his  proceedings 
against  Dissenters,  and  he  must  be  reckoned  as  having 
belonged  to  that  most  odious  class  of  persecutors  "  who 
persecute  without  the  excuse  of  religious  bigotry,"t 
He  hated  Nonconformists  mainly  on  three  grounds.  As 
a  man  of  the  zvorld,  he  was  averse  to  their  profession  of 
spiritual  religion,  being  totally  unable  to  understand 
it,  looking  at  it,  as  he  did,  through  the  medium  of 
prejudices  which  caricatured  its  noblest  qualities  ;  and 
he  was  also  exasperated  at  what  he  deemed  a  phari- 

*  Wood  says  ("  Ath.  Ox.,"  IV.  855)  that  Sheldon  was  not 
installed  at  Canterbury,  and  never  visited  it  during  the  time  that 
he  was  Archbishop  ;  nor  did  he  visit  Oxford  all  the  time  he  was 
Chancellor. 

t  The  expression  is  Milman's,  in  reference  to  another  character. 


1662-1G77.]       THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:       461 

saical  assumption  on  the  part  of  Christians  who  advocate 
what  are  called  "  evangelical  "  views,  and  w^ho  insist 
upon  what  they  style  purity  of  communion.  As  a 
Royalist,  Sheldon  identified  his  opponents  with  the 
cause  of  Republicanism,  and  believed,  or  professed  to 
believe,  that  they  were  all  bent  upon  doing  to  Charles 
II.  what  some  of  them,  or  their  predecessors,  had  done 
to  Charles  I.  And,  lastly,  as  an  Episcopalian,  who  had 
himself  suffered  from  Presbyterians  and  Independents, 
he  determined  to  pay  back  in  full  what  he  owed,  both 
capital  and  interest. 

It  is  essential  to  our  forming  a  correct  estimate  of 
the  state  of  the  Church  after  the  Restoration,  that 
we  should  examine  what  we  can  find  respecting  the 
character  of  others  who  occupied  the  Episcopal  Bench, 
inasmuch  as  they  must  have  been  largely  responsible 
for  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  it  is 
convenient  for  us  here  to  pause  for  that  purpose.  To 
whatever  party  an  author  may  belong,  he  finds  it 
easy  to  idealize  these  dignitaries,  and  to  give  general 
impressions  of  them,  favourable  or  unfavourable,  ac- 
cording as  his  prejudices,  working  upon  slight  materials, 
may  influence  his  imagination.  But  I  decidedly  prefer 
in  what  I  shall  say  of  the  Caroline  prelates,  to  confine 
myself  to  such  reliable  information  as  I  can  discover, 
rather  than  to  indulge  in  generalities ;  and  I  lament, 
that  after  the  best  endeavours  to  acquaint  myself  with 
the  subject,  the  knowledge  I  possess  with  regard  to 
some  of  these  persons  is  so  scanty,  that  my  accounts 
of  them  wall  afford  the  historical  student  but  little 
satisfaction. 

The  selection  of  a  principle  of  arrangement  in  this 
portion  of  our  history  is  not  without  difficulties. 
Perhaps,  on  the  wdiole,  instead  of  adopting  an  alpha- 


462 


RELIGION-  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 


betical  list  of  names,  or  a  chronological  series  of 
characters,  or  a  geographical  distribution  of  sees,  it 
will  be  better  to  take  the  occupants  of  the  Bench 
according  to  their  importance,  and  to  select  first  the 
most  prominent.* 

Dr.  Seth  Ward  had  been  President  of  Trinity 
College,  Oxford,  and  at  the  Restoration  he  succeeded 
Reynolds  at  St.  Laurence  Jewry,  upon  the  promotion 
of  the  latter  Divine  to  a  Bishopric.  He  was  nominated 
to  the  see  of  Exeter  in  1662,  as  Pope,  his  biographer, 
says,  upon  the  recommendation  of  his  friend  Monk,  Duke 
of  Albemarle ;  but  a  different  story  is  told  by  Aubrey. 
After  Gauden,  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  had  been  trans- 
lated to  Worcester  in  1661,  Waj'd,  who  was  then  Dean, 
"  was  very  well  known  to  the  gentry,  and  his  learning, 
prudence  and  comity,  had  won  them  all  to  be  his 
friends.  The  news  of  the  death  of  the  Bishop  being- 
brought  to  them^  who  were  all  very  merry  and  rejoicing 
with  good  entertainment,  with  great  alacrity,  the 
gentlemen  cried  all,  'We  will  have  Mr.  Dean  to  be 
our  bishop.'  This  was  at  that  critical  time  when  the 
House  of  Commons  were  the  King's  darlings.  The 
Dean  told  them  that,  for  his  part,  he  had  no  interest 
or  acquaintance  at  Court,  but  intimated  to  them  how 
much  the  King  esteemed  the  members  of  Parliament 
(and  a  great  many  Parliament  men  were  then  there), 
and  that  His  Majesty  would  deny  them  nothing.  '  If 
'tis  so,  gentlemen,'  said  the  Dean,  '  that  you  will  needs 
have  me  to  .be  your  Bishop,  if  some  of  you  make  your 
address  to  His  Majesty,  'twill  be  done.'    With  that  they 

*  In  these  sketches,  I  inckide  all  the  notable  members  of  the 
Episcopal  body  down  to  the  Revolution— but,  though  I  anticipate 
a  period  embraced  in  my  subsequent  narrative,  the  seven 
Bishops  are  omitted,  as  they  will  require  particular  notice  here- 
after. 


16G2-1677.      THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION:        463 

drank  the  other  glass,  a  health  to  the  King,  and 
another  to  their  wished-for  Bishop,  had  their  horses 
presently  made  ready,  put  foot  in  stirrup,  and  away 
they  rode  merrily  to  London  ;  went  to  the  King,  and 
he  immediately  granted  them  their  request.  This," 
adds  Aubrey,  "  is  the  first  time  that  ever  a  Bishop  was 
made  by  the  House  of  Commons."  *  Ward  speedily 
became  renowned  for  his  diligent  discharge  of  Epis- 
copal duties.  "  He  kept  his  constant  triennial  visita- 
tions," says  Pope,  "  in  the  first  whereof  he  confirmed 
many  thousands  of  all  ages  and  different  sexes  ;  he 
also  settled  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  and,  without  any 
noise  or  clamour,  reduced  that  active,  subtle,  and  then 
factious  people,  to  great  conformity,  not  without  the 
approbation  even  of  the  adversaries  themselves."  Dur- 
ing his  residence  at  Exeter,  he  gained  the  love  of  all 
the  gentry,  and  had  particularly  the  help  and  counte- 
nance of  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  who,  in  all  things, 
showed  himself  most  ready  to  assist  him  in  the  exercise 
of  his  jurisdiction.!  He,  as  mentioned  before,  zealously 
advocated  the  Conventicle  Act,  and  was  severe  in  his 
treatment  of  Nonconformists,  not,  it  is  curiously 
pleaded,  out  of  enmity  to  the  Dissenter's  persons,  but 
of  love  to  the  repose  and  welfare  of  the  Government. 
We  are  further  informed  by  this  admiring  friend,  "  that 
Ward  was  very  much  in  favour  with  the  King  and  the 
Duke  of  York,  before  the  latter  declared  himself  of  the 
Romish  persuasion,  whom  he  treated  magnificently  at 
Salisbury  ;  and  also  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
who  used  to  entertain  him  with  the  greatest  kindness 
and  familiarity  imaginable  ;  in  his  common  discourse 

*  Aubrey's  " Letters,"  III.  574. 

t  Pope's  "  Life  of  Ward,"  57.     This  book  abounds  in  amusing 
anecdotes. 


464  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII, 

to  him,  he  used  to  call  him  Old  Sarum  :  and  I  have 
heard  the  Archbishop  speak  of  him  more  than  once  as 
the  person  whom  he  wished  might  succeed  him."  The 
temper  of  the  prelate  in  relation  to  the  Church  of 
England,  and  the  kind  of  policy  which  he  adopted  for 
the  promotion  of  its  interests,  may  be  inferred  from 
the  good  opinion  of  him  entertained  by  Sheldon,  just 
quoted  by  Pope,  with  so  much  satisfaction.* 

There  is  a  want  of  material  out  of  which  to  draw 
flesh  and  blood  portraits  of  some  of  the  Bishops : 
many  are  names  and  nothing  more,  others  are  but  stiff 
and  formal  images  without  life,  we  can  judge  neither 
of  their  appearance,  nor  of  their  character ;  but  the 
gossiping  memoir  of  Ward  by  Pope  affords  us  a 
pictorial  idea  of  his  mode  of  living,  of  his  physical 
activity,  of  his  fondness  for  horse-exercise,  and  of  his 
self-exposure  to  weather,  going  out  in  wind,  rain,  and 
snow,  until  forced  to  seek  shelter  on  the  lee  side  of  the 
nearest  hayrick.  He  was  something  of  a  "muscular 
Christian,"  a  bachelor  also,  but  genial  in  his  ways, 
exceedingly  hospitable,  and  scrupulously  punctilious  in 
the  discharge  of  his  devotional  duties.  This  remarkable 
man  distinguished  himself  as  an  astronomer,  and  was 
reputed  to  be  the  ablest  orator  of  his  time  ;  after  these 
proofs  of  his  intellectual  power,  in  addition  to  the 
evidences  of  his  administrative  ability,  how  affecting  it 
is  to  turn  to  the  record  of  his  imbecility  in  his  last 
days.  "  He  did  not,"  we  are  told,  "  know  his  house,  or 
his  servants  ;  in  a  word,  he  knew  nothing." 

''  There  is  in  the  Lambeth  Library,  in  addition  to  the  returns 
made  to  Sheldon,  an  account  of  the  number  and  proportions  of 
Popish  recusants,  obstinate  Separatists,  and  Conformists,  in- 
habitants of  Wiltshire,  and  Berlcshire,  under  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  Sarum,  by  Seth  Ward,  1676.  See  as 
to  Ward,  Baxter's  "Life  and  Times,"  II L  86. 


1662-1077-]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE   RESTORATION.       465 

Dr.  George  Morley  may  be  noticed  next.  Burnet 
says  that  he  "  was,  in  many  respects,  a  very  eminent 
man,  very  zealous  against  Popery,"  and  also  very 
zealous  against  Dissent ;  considerably  learned,  with 
great  vivacity  of  thought ;  soon  provoked,  and  with 
little  mastery  over  his  own  temper.*  His  zeal  against 
the  doctrines  of  Popery  is  apparent  in  his  writings,  and 
not  less  so  his  zeal  against  Dissent ;  in  connection 
with  his  opposition  to  both,  he  avows  the  doctrine  of 
passive  obedience,  declaring  in  terms  the  most  un- 
equivocal, "  the  best  and  safest  way  for  Prince,  State, 
and  people,  is  to  profess,  protect,  cherish,  and  allow 
of  that  religion,  and  that  only,  which  allows  of  no 
rising  up  against,  or  resisting  sovereign  power,  no,  not 
in  its  own  defence,  nor  upon  any  other  account  what- 
soever." t  Indeed,  he  maintains,  again  and  again,  the 
principle  of  intolerance  in  the  government  of  the 
Church,  and  the  principle  of  despotism  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  State ;  holding  the  King  to  be  sole 
sovereign,  whilst  Parliament  is  only  a  concurring 
power  in  making  laws,  and  Bishops  alone  are  legitimate 
ecclesiastical  rulers.  The  maintenance  of  these  doc- 
trines by  a  man  of  "  hot  spirit "  and  "  ready  tongue," 
infirmities  which  Baxter  charges  upon  him,  not  without 
sufficient  reason,  and  not  without  Burnet's  corrobora- 
tion, augured  little  for  the  comfort  or  the  peace  of  the 
Nonconformists  in  the  diocese  of  Winchester,  over 
which  he  presided  from  1662  to  1684.  He  had,  it  is 
true,  provoked  Baxter,^  and  signs  of  the  provocation 

*  "  Own  Time,"  I.  590. 

t  Morley's  "  Treatises."     Sermon  before  the  King,  p.  38. 

X  He  had  unfairly  preached  against  Baxter,  and  blazed  abroad 
his  marriage  with  all  the  odium  he  could  cast  upon  it.     ("  Life 
and  Times,"  II.  375,  384.)     I  have  already  noticed  in  this  volume 
Baxter's  opinion  of  Morley,  and  the  conduct  of  the  latter. 
VOL.   III.  2    H 


466  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

occasionally  appear  in  the  pages  of  the  "Life  and  Times," 
in  fact,  the  Bishop's  treatment  of  the  Presbyter  was 
most  violent ;  but  the  latter,  after  quoting  the  report 
that  Morley,  Ward,  and  Dolben,  through  fear  of  Popery, 
had  expressed  a  desire  to  abate  the  severity  of  the  laws 
against  Dissenters,  and  after  stating,  that  though  there 
was  long  talk  there  was  nothing  done,  expresses  a 
hope  that  they  were  not  so  bad  as  their  censurers 
supposed.  Yet,  he  adds,  it  was  a  strange  thing,  that 
persons  who  had  power  to  make  such  breaches  had  no 
power  to  heal  them.*  It  is  a  pleasure  to  be  able  to 
state  that  Morley,  in  his  old  age,  gave  signs  of  better 
feeling,  for  it  is  related  that  he  stopped  proceedings 
against  Mr.  Sprint,  an  ejected  minister,  and  invited 
him  to  dinner,  endeavouring  to  soften  down  the  terms 
of  Conformity ;  and,  better  still,  it  Is  said,  that  in 
Morley's  last  days,  he  drank  to  an  intermeddling 
Country  Mayor,  in  a  cup  of  canary,  advising  him  to 
let  Dissenters  lie  in  quiet,  "  in  many  of  whom,  he  was 
satisfied,  there  was  the  fear  of  God,"  and  he  thought 
they  were  "  not  likely  to  be  gained  by  rigour  or 
severity." 

Dr.  John  Cosin  had  in  his  younger  days  been  fond 
of  Ritualism,  and  had  suffered  for  it  under  the  Long 
Parliament.  Though  there  existed  ground  enough  for 
charging  him  with  the  adoption  of  childish  ceremonies, 
it  is  plain,  from  a  fair  examination  of  his  case,  that  the 
charges  against  him  were  considerably  exaggerated.! 

*  "Life  and  Times,"  III.  84.  Salmon,  in  his  "Lives  of  the 
Enghsh  Bishops,"  p.  346,  says  of  Morley,  "  His  strength  is 
attributed  to  keeping  up  his  College  custom  of  rising  at  five  in 
the  morning,  sitting  without  a  fire,  and  going  to  his  bed  cold.  He 
did  indeed  exceed  in  severity  to  himself,  eating  but  once  a  day, 
and  not  going  to  bed  till  eleven." 

t  Fuller,  in  his  "  Worthies,"  L  483,  retracts  some  things  which 
he  had  advanced  against  Cosin  in  his  "  Church   History,"  and 


16C2-1G77.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIO.V.       467 

As  I  shall  show  hereafter,  a  considerable  change  took 
place  in  his  sentiments  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life. 
He  became  more  opposed  to  Romanism  than  he  had 
been  before.  He  said  once,  when  some  one  was  prais- 
ing the  Pope  for  certain  concessions,  "  We  thank  him 
not  at  all  for  that  which  God  hath  always  allowed  us  in 
His  Word."  The  Pope  "  would  allow  it  us,  so  long  as 
it  stood  with  his  policy,  and  take  it  away,  so  soon  as  it 
stood  with  his  power."  *  Cosin,  like  Ward  and  other 
prelates,  acquired  renown  for  hospitality.  Whether  at 
home  or  not,  he  took  care  that  the  gates  of  his  Castle 
should  be  always  open  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
Royal  Commissioners,  and  other  Officers  of  State,  as 
they  travelled  to  and  fro  between  London  and  Edin- 
burgh ;  nor  did  he  forget  to  give  shelter  and  cheer  to 
guests  of  humbler  rank.  He  is  described,  as  zealous  in 
restoring  to  its  former  state  Divine  worship  at  Durham 
Cathedral,  in  reforming  irregularities  which  had  pre- 
vailed under  the  Usurpation,  in  filling  up  the  number 
of  the  Minor  Canons,  and  members  of  the  Choir,  and 
in  restoring  discipline  throughout  his  diocese.  It  is 
further  recorded  of  him,  that  he  was  a  man  of  great 
reading,  and  a  lover  of  books  for  their  own  sakes,  ex- 
pending large  sums  upon  his  library.  After  the  ejec- 
tion of  1662,  he  was  willing  to  concede  something  to 
scrupulous  consciences,  and  offered  to  confer  Episcopal 
orders  in  his  chapel  at  Auckland  upon  Presbyterian 
ministers  disposed  to  conform,  according  to  a  formulary 

observes,  "  It  must  be  confessed,  that  a  sort  of  fond  people  sur- 
mised, as  if  he  had  once  been  dechning  to  the  Popish  persuasion. 
Thus  the  dim-sighted  complain  of  the  darkness  of  the  room, 
when,  alas,  the  fault  is  in  their  own  e)'es  ;  and  the  lame  of  the 
unevenness  of  the  floor,  when,  indeed,  it  heth  in  their  unsound 
legs." 

*  Fuller's  "  Worthies,"  I.  4S4. 


^68  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

much  recommended  at  the  time,  "If  thou  hast  not  been 
ordained,  I  ordain  thee."  Yet,  in  some  cases,  he  could 
be  very  intolerant  ;  for  he  wrote,  in  the  year  1663,  to 
the  Mayor  of  Newcastle,  telling  him  to  look  sharply 
after  certain  Nonconforming  ministers  of  high  character, 
whom  he  stigmatized  as  Caterpillars*  But,  with  a 
fluctuation  of  feeling  common  in  impulsive  natures,  he 
would  sometimes  administer  rebuke  to  those  who 
laughed  at  Puritans,  and  he  wrote  in  his  will,  "  I  take 
it  to  be  my  duty,  and  that  of  all  the  Bishops,  and 
ministers  of  the  Church,  to  do  our  utmost  endeavour, 
•  that  at  last  an  end  may  be  put  to  the  differences  of 
religion,  or,  at  least,  that  they  may  be  lessened." f  He 
suffered  much  from  the  disease  of  the  stone,  yet  he 
persisted  in  performing  his  Episcopal  visitations,  even 
when  obliged  to  be  carried  over  paved  roads  in  a  sedan 
chair.  His  chaplain,  Isaac  Basire,  records,  that,  being 
so  near  death  as  to  be  unable  to  kneel,  he  often 
devoutly  repeated  the  words  of  King  Manasses,  "  Lord 
I  bow  the  knee  of  my  heart  ; "  and  having  often 
prayed,  "  *  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly,'  his  last  act  Avas 
the  elevation  of  his  hand,"  with  the  solemn  ejaculation, 
"  '  Lord,' — wherewith  he  expired  without  pain,  accord- 
ing to  his  frequent  prayer,  that  he  might  not  die  of  a 
sudden,  or  painful  death.":}:  He  filled  the  see  of  Dur- 
ham from  1660  to  1 67 1. 

*  Life  of  Richard  Gilpin,  prefixed  to  his  "  Demonologia  Sacra," 
XXXV.  Also,  I  find  in  the  Record  Office,  a  letter  from  "  John 
Bishop  of  Durham"  to  Williamson,  sending  "  the  complaint  re- 
ceived from  Newcastle  about  the  seditious  meetings  of  the 
Congregation  of  Saints."  The  letter  is  dated  November  23rd, 
1668. 

t  "  Conformist's  Plea,"  35.  There  is  a  letter  in  the  Record 
Office  (Sanderson  to  Williamson,  1667,  Sept.  19th),  complaining  of 
the  laxity  of  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  in  not  convicting  John  Cock, 
a  notorious  Nonconformist,  agent  for  Lady  Vane,  at  Raby  Castle, 
wlu)  was  brought  before  him. 

X  Basire,  89. 


1CG2-1677.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       469 

Dr.  John  Racket  left  behind  him  two  well-known 
monuments  of  his  Churchmanship.  The  one  is  his 
*'  Scrinia  Reserata,"  or  memorial  of  Archbishop  Wil- 
liams :  as  strange  a  piece  of  biography  as  was  ever 
written,  full  of  allusions  and  disquisitions  of  all  kinds, 
so  that  readers  are  puzzled  to  find  out  links  of  connec- 
tion, and  lose  sight  of  the  hero  amidst  the  mazes  con- 
structed by  the  biographer.  "What  it  contains  of 
Williams,"  as  Lord  Campbell  has  said,  "  is  like  two 
grains  of  wheat  in  two  bushels  (not  of  chaff,  but)  of 
various  other  grain  ; "  yet  the  knowledge  and  the 
pedantry,  the  sagacity  and  the  prejudice,  the  zeal  for 
the  Church  and  the  animosity  towards  Dissenters,  which 
mark  the  book,  accurately  reflect  the  character  of  its 
author  during  his  busy  episcopate  of  nine  years.  The 
other  monument  of  this  famous  Bishop  is  to  be  found 
in  the  cathedral  of  Lichfield,  to  the  restoration  of 
which  he  zealously  devoted  himself.  He  reconsecrated 
it  on  Christmas  Eve,  in  the  year  1669,  and  ordered  a 
peal  of  six  bells  to  be  hung  in  the  tower,  one  of  which 
was  finished  during  his  last  illness.  "  Then  he  went 
out  of  his  bed-chamber  into  the  next  room  to  hear  it, 
seemed  well  pleased  with  the  sound,  and  blessed  God, 
who  had  favoured  him  with  life  to  hear  it,  but  at  the 
same  time  observed  that  it  would  be  his  own  passing 
bell  ;  and,  retiring  into  his  chamber,  he  never  left  it 
until  he  was  carried  to  his  grave,"  an  event  which 
occurred  in  1670.*  Of  the  two  chief  monuments  of 
Racket's  fame,  the  cathedral  is  the  more  honourable,! 
showing  as   it   does    his   commendable   desire   for  the 

*  "  Life,"  by  Plume. 

t  Salmon  says  "  the  expense  was  ^20,000,  of  which  the  Chapter 
contributed  ^1,000.  The  rest  was  his  own,  or  procured  by  him  of 
other  pious  persons."     ("  Lives,"  296.) 


470 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

beauty  of  God's  house,  and  the  comehness  of  its 
worship  ;  and  with  it  we  may  associate  the  remem- 
brance of  his  Episcopal  activity  in  reducing  the  clergy 
of  his  see  to  order,  and  what  he  esteemed  efficiency, 
The  "  Scrinia  Reserata  "  suggests  the  idea  of  what  he 
must  have  been  in  his  intercourse  with  the  ministers 
and  people  who  dwelt  in  his  diocese:  learned  but 
verbose,  clever  but  wearisome,  equally  fond  of  argu- 
ment and  gossip,  one-sided  in  opinion,  and  abounding 
both  in  favouritism  and  in  personal  dislikes,  not  with- 
out genial  temper  and  strong  affections  of  friendship 
for  some  Avho  were  within  the  Church,  but  violent  and 
bitter  to  all  those  who  were  without.  His  sermons 
suggest  what  he  was  as  a  preacher,  fond  of  ingenious 
but  trifling  disquisitions  ;  and,  although  a  Calvinist, 
delighting  in  the  Fathers  and  Schoolmen,  and  some- 
times talking  about  the  Holy  Virgin,  after  the  manner 
of  a  believer  in  the  immaculate  conception.  From  all 
this  it  may  be  inferred  how  he  would  treat  Noncon- 
formists, but  his  biographer  leaves  no  doubt  upon  that 
point,  for  he  distinctly  states,  "  The  Bishop  was  an 
enemy  to  all  separation  from  the  Church  of  England ; 
but  their  hypocrisy  he  thought  superlative,  that  allowed 
the  doctrine  and  yet  would  separate  for  mislike  of  the 
discipline,  and  therefore  he  wished  that,  as  of  old,  all 
kings  and  other  Christians  subscribed  to  the  conciliary 
decrees,  so  now  a  law  might  pass  that  all  Justices  of 
Peace  should  do  so  in  England,  and  then  they  would 
be  more  careful  to  punish  the  depravers  of  Church 
orders."* 

Dr.  John  Wilkins  was  a  different  man  from  Hacket. 
His  close    alliance   by    marriage   with    the    Cromwell 

*  "Life,"  by  Plume.     See  Coleridge  on   Racket's   Sermons. 
("  l\emains,"  III.  175.) 


1662-1G77.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       471 

family,  and  his  connection  with  the  Protector  Richard, 
stood  for  a  time  in  the  way  of  his  preferment  after  the 
Restoration,  but  at  length  he  obtained,  through  the 
influence  of  his  friend  Seth  Ward,  the  Hving  of  St. 
Lawrence  Jewry.  Not  only  was  he  disliked  at  White- 
hall, but  there  was  a  strong  prejudice  against  him  at 
Lambeth,  and,  to  add  to  his  misfortunes,  he  lost  his 
library,  his  furniture,  and  his  parsonage-house,  in  the 
fire  of  London.  But  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  be- 
friended the  sufferer,  and,  in  spite  of  Sheldon's  oppo- 
sition, secured  for  him  the  Bishopric  of  Chester.  When 
this  person  of  varied  fortune  had  reached  the  Episcopal 
bench,  the  Archbishop  became  reconciled  to  his  eleva- 
tion, and  formed  a  favourable  estimate  of  his  character, 
a  circumstance  which,  like  that  of  Wilkins'  first  prefer- 
ment after  the  Restoration,  was  owing  to  the  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held  by  Seth  Ward,  his  old  Oxford  friend, 
whose  regard  for  him,  notwithstanding  their  different 
opinions  upon  ecclesiastical  subjects,  continued  to  the 
end  of  life.*  Whilst  Ward  was  a  High  Churchman, 
and  harshly  treated  the  Nonconformists,  Wilkins  was  a 
very  Low  Churchman,  and  showed  them  great  favour. 
For  this  the  latter  was  eulogized  by  one  party,t  and 

*  See  notice  of  Wilkins,  in  Pope's  "  Life  of  Seth  Ward." 
t  Newcome,  in  his  "  Diary,"  says — "  November  22,  1672.  I 
received  the  sad  news  of  the  death  of  the  learned,  worthy,  pious, 
and  peaceable  Bishop  of  Chester,  Dr.  John  Wilkins  ;  he  was  my 
worthy  friend."  John  Angier,  the  Nonconformist  minister  at  Den- 
ton, speaks  of  his  removal  as  a  great  loss.  (Heywood's  "  Life  of 
Angier,"  86.)  Martindale  ("  Autobiography,"  196)  also  refers  to 
the  Bishop's  moderation,  and  adds — "  But  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  by  his  visitation,  took  all  power  out  of  his  hands  for  a  year, 
soon  after  which  this  honest  Bishop  Wilkins  died."  I  may  be 
permitted  to  add  that  the  good  Bishop  was  a  wit.  In  reference 
to  his  idea  of  the  possibihty  of  a  passage  to  the  moon,  the  Duchess 
of  Newcastle  said  to  him,"  Doctor,  where  am  I  to  find  a  place  for 
waiting  in  the  way  up  to  that  planet  ?  "     "  JNIadam,"  replied  he, 


4^2  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

abused  by  another.  From  the  reproaches  he  incurred 
he  was  vindicated  by  Dr.  WiUiam  Lloyd,  at  the  time 
Dean  of  Bangor,  who,  in  his  funeral  sermon  for  the 
Bishop,  ascribed  his  liberality  to  the  goodness  of  his 
nature,  and  to  the  education  which  he  had  received 
under  his  grandfather,  Mr.  Dod,  a  truly  learned  and 
pious  man,  although  a  Dissenter  in  some  things.* 
Influenced  by  kindness  of  heart  and  catholicity  of 
principle,  Wilkins  pursued  a  course  of  moderation  and 
charity,  and  it  proved,  as  such  a  course  ever  must, 
politic  in  the  end,  for  Calamy  acknowledges  that  many 
ministers  were  brought  within  the  pale  of  the  Establish- 
ment by  Wilkins'  soft  interpretation  of  the  terms  of 
conformity.  The  ability  and  the  attainments  of  this 
prelate  were  only  equalled  by  his  moral  excellence. 
Burnet  praises  his  greatness  of  mind,  and  sagacity  of 
judgment,  and  says  he  was  the  wisest  clergyman  he 
ever  knew.f  Sir  Peter  Pett  celebrated  him  as  an  orna- 
ment both  of  the  University  and  the  nation,  and  the 
Royal  Society  eulogized  his  insight  into  all  parts  of 
learning,  as  well  as  his  charity,  ingeniousness,  and 
moderation.^  As  these  persons  were  his  friends  and 
associates,  their  opinion  of  him  might  be  charged  with 
partiality,  but  there  is  a  general  concurrence  in  praise 
of  his  virtues,  on  the  part  of  persons  who  were  decidedly 
opposed  to  him  in  their  ecclesiastical  opinions.  He 
enjoyed  his  dignity  only  four  years,  and  died  in  1672, 
Wilkins  was  succeeded  by  that  illustrious  theological 

"  of  all  other  people  in  the  world,  I  never  expected  that  question 
from  you,  who  have  built  so  many  castles  in  the  air,  that  you  may 
be  every  night  at  one  of  your  own."  (Stanley's  "  Memorials  of 
Westminster,"  234.) 

*  Preached  at  the  Guildhall  Chapel,  London,  1672,  p.  46. 

t  "  Own  Time,"  I.  187. 

X  Wood's,  "Athen.  Ox."  III.  969. 


16C2-1677.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       473 

scholar,  Dr.  John  Pearson,  author  of  the  "  Exposition  of 
the  Creed,"  who,  from  his  studious  habits,  became  easy 
and  remiss  in  his  Episcopal  functions,  for  some  years 
before  the  end  of  his  episcopate,  in  1686,  when  he  died, 
having  some  time  before  sunk  into  a  state  of  second 
childhood.  His  theological  opinions  will  come  under 
review  in  the  next  volume. 

The  circumstances  under  which  Dr.  Edward  Reynolds 
received  a  mitre  have  been  described  already.  He  did 
so  professedly  upon  condition  that  the  Worcester 
House  Declaration  should  become  law,  which  it  never 
did,  and  that  the  Church  of  England  should  be  modi- 
fied, so  as  to  meet  Presbyterian  scruples,  which  it 
never  was.  However,  it  does  not  appear  that  his 
Presbyterianism  had  at  any  time  been  so  extreme  as  to 
prevent  his  adopting  a  modified  form  of  Episcopacy, 
and  Baxter  does  not  charge  him  with  inconsistency  in 
going  so  far  as  he  actually  went.  Indeed,  Baxter  per- 
suaded him  to  accept  a  Bishopric,  implying  that  he  did 
not  discover  in  his  friend  that  repugnance  to  the  posi- 
tion which  he  felt  himself.  Reynolds'  inconsistency 
appears,  not  in  his  first  qualified  acceptance,  but  in  his 
subsequent  retention  of  office,  after  the  conditions  on 
which  he  had  entered  upon  it  were  completely  dis- 
regarded. But  the  truth  is,  he  was  a  man  of  little  firm- 
ness, and  the  blame  of  his  continued  conformity  has 
been  ungallantly,  but  in  accordance  with  a  very  ancient 
precedent,  cast  on  his  wife.  "It  was  verily  thought, 
by  his  contemporaries,  that  he  would  have  never  been 
given  to  change,  had  it  not  been  to  please  a  covetous 
and  politic  consort,  who  put  him  upon  those  things  he 
did."*  Throughout  his  episcopate  in  the  diocese  of 
Norwich,  which  lasted  until  1676,  he  remained  a 
*  Wood's  "Athen.  Ox.,"  III.,  1085. 


474  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

Puritan,  eschewing  Court  politics,  leading  a  quiet  life 
in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  calling,  and  in  the 
retirement  of  his  palace  ;  to  which,  it  may  be  observed, 
he  added  a  new  chapel  on  the  ruins  of  the  old  one, 
which  had  been  destroyed  by  the  rabble  after  the  fall 
of  the  Bishops  in  the  year  1643.  Affability  and  meek- 
ness are  virtues  generally  ascribed  to  Reynolds  ;  his 
abilities  as  a  Divine,  and  his  gifts  as  a  preacher,  with 
the  draAvback  of  a  harsh  and  unpleasant  voice,  were 
acknowledged  by  his  contemporaries  to  have  been  con- 
siderable. An  unpublished  letter  sheds  light  on  the 
state  of  the  diocese  of  Norwich,  and  the  character  of 
the  Bishop  : — "  Having  often  complaints  made  unto 
me  in  general  of  the  offensive  lives  of  some  of  the 
clergy,  I  held  it  my  duty  to  signify  so  much  unto  you, 
not  thereby  myself  accusing  any  of  my  brethren,  but 
conceiving  it  very  needful,  by  occasion  of  such  reports, 
earnestly  to  entreat  them  that  they  will  be  very  tender 
of  the  credit  of  religion,  of  the  dignity  of  their  function, 
and  of  the  success  of  their  ministry  ;  and  endeavour, 
by  their  sober,  pious,  and  prudent  conversations,  to 
stop  the  mouths  of  any  that  watch  for  their  halting,  to 
bear  witness  to  the  truth  of  that  doctrine  which  they 
preach,  to  be  guides  and  examples  of  hohness  of  life  to 
the  people  over  whom  they  are  set,  and  to  lay  up  for 
themselves  a  comfortable  account  against  the  time  that 
we  shall  appear  before  the  Great  Shepherd  and  Bishop 
of  Souls."* 

Dr.  Herbert  Croft,  descended  from  an  old  English 

family,  distinguished  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  IV.  and 

Elizabeth,   had    in    his   youth  been    decoyed  into  the 

Church  of  Rome,  whilst  a  student  at  St.  Omer ;  but,  on 

Norwich,  April  13,  1670.     Lambeth  Library,  Tenison  MSS. 


1662-1G77.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       475 

his  return  from  the  Continent,  he  had  been  reconciled 
to  the  Church  of  England  by  Morton,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham. He  had  held  a  Canonry  in  St.  George's  Chapel, 
Windsor,  and  had  been  made  Dean  of  Hereford  in  the 
year  1644.  His  appointment  to  such  a  dignity  at  such 
a  time  suggests  the  fact  that  then  he  was  a  very  Low 
Churchman,  with  Presbyterian  tendencies  ;  of  course 
he  was  afterwards  obliged  to  relinquish  both  the  office 
and  its  revenues.  When  the  King  returned,  to  whose 
cause  Croft  had  been  attached,  he  recovered  his 
Deanery,  and  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Monk,  in  1 661,  he 
succeeded  to  the  Bishopric.  His  family  had  long  been 
settled  in  Herefordshire,  and  he  cherished  a  strong 
attachment  to  his  native  county,  in  consequence  of 
which  he  preferred  to  remain  in  this  inferior  see,  with 
its  small  revenues,  rather  than  accept  richer  preferment 
at  a  distance.  Weary  of  Court  life  he,  in  the  year 
1667,  retired  from  the  office  of  Dean  to  the  Chapel 
Royal,  to  live  entirely  amongst  his  own  clergy,  like  a 
primitive  Bishop.  Becoming  a  strict  disciplinarian,  he 
admitted  no  one  to  a  stall  in  his  cathedral  who  did  not 
dwell  within  the  diocese,  in  the  centre  of  which  his  own 
country  residence  was  situated  ;  and  there  he  regularly 
relieved  at  his  gates  sixty  poor  people  a  week,  besides 
assisting  the  indigent  in  other  ways.  The  moderate 
ecclesiastical  views  which  he  expressed  in  his  "  Naked 
Truth,"  already  noticed,  he  retained  to  the  last,  but  he 
did  himself  no  honour  by  submitting  to  the  order  of 
James  H.  in  1688.* 

Respecting  the  character  of  Dr.  Matthew  Wren, 
there  appears  to  have  existed  little  difference  of  opinion 

*  "Athen.  Oxon.,"  IV.  309-317.  There  is  a  letter  from  Croft 
amongst  the  "State  Papers"  (Dec.  30,  1678),  relative  to  his 
Library,  etc. 


476  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

amongst  his  contemporaries  ;  for  not  only  did  Burton 
the  Puritan  say  that  in  all  Queen  Mary's  reign  "  there 
was  not  so  great  a  havoc  made  in  so  short  a  time  of  the 
faithful  minsters  of  God,"  as  by  him,  but  Archbishop 
Williams  spoke  of  him  as  a  "wren  mounted  on  the 
Avings  of  an  eagle,"  and  Lord  Clarendon  called  him  a 
"  man  of  a  severe,  sour  nature."*  He  filled  the  see  of 
Ely  a  second  time,  from  the  fall  of  the  Commonwealth 
until  the  year  1667,  when  he  departed  this  life ;  and  it 
is  recorded  of  him,  that  as  an  act  of  thanksgiving  for 
the  King's  return  and  his  own  restoration,  he  built  at 
Pembroke  Hall,  the  College  in  which  he  had  been 
educated  at  Cambridge,  a  new  chapel,  where  his 
remains  were  interred  with  unusual  pomp.f 

Wren  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Benjamin  Laney,  pre- 
viously Bishop  of  Peterborough,  who  was  translated 
from  that  place  to  Lincoln  in  1663,  and  who  died  in 
1675.  Laney  seems  to  have  been  kind-hearted  as  well 
as  able,  for  in  his  primary  visitation,  before  Bartholo- 
mew's day,  he  said  very  significantly  to  the  assembled 
clergy,  "  Not  I,  but  the  law ;  "  and  although  he  had 
suffered  considerably  from  the  Presbyterians  at  Cam- 
bridge, in  the  year  1644,  he  could,  to  use  his  own 
phrase,  when  presiding  over  the  see  of  Lincoln,  "  look 
through  his  fingers  ; "  and  he  suffered  a  worthy  Non- 
conformist to  preach  publicly  very  near  him,  for  some 
years  together.^ 

Laney  was  followed  at  Ely  by  Dr.  Peter  Gunning. 
The  fondness  of  the  latter  for  controversy  is  attested 
by  the  epitaph  in  his  cathedral,  where  he  was  buried 

*  "  Hist,  of  the  Rebellion,"  42. 

t  Aid.  Newtons'  "  Diary,"  quoted  in  "  Annals  of  Cambridge," 
by  Cooper,  III.  522. 

\  "  Conformists'  Pica,"  85. 


1662-1G77.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       477 

in  1684,  and  receives  illustration  from  the  accounts 
recorded  of  theological  discussions  in  which  he  publicly 
engaged  with  Nonconformists.  Blamelessness  of  private 
life,  and  the  Episcopal  virtues  of  generosity  to  friends,* 
of  benefactions  to  charitable  and  religious  objects,  and 
of  almsgiving  to  the  poor,  are  ascribed  to  him  by  Wood  ; 
Dr.  Gower,  in  his  funeral  sermon  for  him,  extols  his 
piety ;  but  Burnet  has  painted  his  character  in  different 
colours.  "  He  was  a  man  of  great  reading,  and  noted 
for  a  special  subtlety  of  arguing,  all  the  arts  of  sophistry 
were  made  use  of  by  him  on  all  occasions,  in  as  con- 
fident a  manner  as  if  they  had  been  sound  reasoning." 
"  He  was  much  set  on  the  reconciling  us  with  Popery 
in  some  points,  and  because  the  charge  of  idolatry 
seemed  a  bar  to  all  thoughts  of  reconciliation  with 
them,  he  set  himself  with  very  great  zeal  to  clear  the 
Church  of  Rome  of  idolatry.  This  made  many  suspect 
him  as  inclining  to  go  over  to  them  ;  but  he  was  far 
from  it,  and  was  a  very  honest,  sincere  man,  but  of  no 
sound  judgment,  and  of  no  prudence  in  affairs.  He 
was  for  our  conforming  in  all  things  to  the  rules  of  the 
primitive  Church,  particularly  in  praying  for  the  dead, 
in  the  use  of  oil,  with  many  other  rituals."  f 

Dr.  William  Paul,  being  possessed  of  large  property, 
and  being  also  a  man  of  business,  had,  through  the 
influence  of  Sheldon,  been  appointed  to  the  see  of 
Oxford,  with  the  hope  that  he  would  rebuild  the 
dilapidated  episcopal  palace  at  Cuddesden.  He  applied 
himself  to  that  undertaking,  and,  that  he  might  be 
assisted  in  it,  received  permission  to  hold  the  valuable 

*  He  allowed  a  considerable  annuity  to  Dr.  Tuckney,  whom  in 
the  Professorship  of  Divinity  at  Cambridge,  and  the  Mastership 
of  St.  John's  College,  he  succeeded  after  the  Restoration. 

t  "Hist,  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  181. 


478  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

Rectory  of  Chinnor  in  comviendam  ;  but,  after  he  had 
purchased  materials  for  his  intended  work,  especially 
a  large  quantity  of  timber,  he  died  in  1665,  having 
held  the  see  for  only  two  years. 

Dr.  John  Warner  is  noted  chiefly  for  being  well  read 
in  scholastic  divinity  and  patristic  literature.  It  is 
recorded  of  him  that,  when  Prebendary  of  Canterbury, 
he  built  a  new  font  in  the  cathedral,  which,  "Avhether 
more  curious  or  more  costly,"  it  was  difficult  to  judge. 
Made  Bishop  of  Rochester,  he,  in  the  earlier  sittings  of 
the  Long  Parliament,  zealously  asserted  Episcopalian 
principles,  "  speaking  for  them  as  long  as  he  had  any 
voice  left  him,"  and  valiantly  defending  the  antiquity 
and  justice  of  an  order  of  spiritual  peers.*  He  suffered, 
not  only  like  the  rest  of  his  brethren,  by  losing  the 
temporalities  of  his  see,  and  by  being  driven  away  from 
the  performance  of  its  duties,  but  he  had  to  compound 
for  his  own  estates,  which  were  of  considerable  value. 
During  the  Protectorate  he  resided  at  Bromley,  in  Kent, 
and  on  the  return  of  Charles  II.  regained  the  see  of 
Rochester,  which  he  held  to  the  time  of  his  death,  in 
1666.  Being  a  rich  man,  his  benefactions  were  large; 
he  contributed  liberally  to  the  cathedral  of  his  diocese, 
and  to  the  Colleges  of  Magdalen,  and  Baliol,  at  Oxford, 
the  place  of  his  education  ;  and  he  also  founded  a  College 
at  Bromley  for  clergymen's  widows. 

Dr.  John  Earle,  after  being  in  exile  with  the  King, 
first  obtained  at  the  Restoration  the  Deanery  of  West- 
minster, then  succeeded  Gauden  in  the  Bishopric  of 
Worcester,  1662,  and  finally  rose  to  the  see  of  Salisbury 
in  1663,  upon  Henchman  becoming  Bishop  of  London. 
Earle  is  described  as  having  been  "  a  very  genteel  man, 
a  contemner  of  the  world,  religious,  and  most  worthy 
*  Fuller's  "Worthies,"  II.  421. 


1GG2-1G77.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATIOX. 


'rl9 


of  the  office  of  a  Bishop  ; "  also,  he  is  spoken  of  as 
having  the  sweetest  and  most  obhging  nature,  and  as 
being  one  than  whom,  since  Hooker's  death,  God  had 
not  blessed  any  with  more  innocent  wisdom,  more 
sanctified  learning,  or  a  more  pious,  peaceable,  primitive 
temper.*  He  was,  says  another  authority,  favourable 
to  Nonconformists,  a  man  that  could  do  good  against 
evil,  forgive  much,  and  of  a  charitable  heart,  and  died, 
to  the  no  great  sorrow  of  them  who  reckoned  his  death 
was  just,  for  labouring  all  his  might  against  the  Oxford 
Five  Mile  Act.f  Within  two  years  after  his  death,  in 
1665,  his  successor  in  the  Bishopric,  Dr.  Alexander 
Hyde,  followed  him  to  the  grave,  the  latter  having 
owed  his  promotion  to  the  influence  of  his  kinsman, 
Lord  Clarendon. 

Dr.  Robert  Skinner,  who  had  been  Bishop  of  Bristol, 
and  had  been  translated  thence  to  Oxford  before  the 
Civil  Wars,  regained  that  diocese  in  1660.  Thence  he 
proceeded  to  the  far  more  desirable  see  of  Worcester, 
in  1663.  He  is  reported  to  have  been  the  sole  Bishop 
who  conferred  orders  during  the  Commonwealth  ;  and, 
after  the  Restoration,  he  ordained  no  less  than  103 
persons  at  one  time  in  Westminster  Abbey ;  so  many 
others  had  been  made  by  him  deacons  and  priests,  that 
at  his  death,  in  1670,  it  was  computed  that  he  had  sent 
more  labourers'  into  the  vineyard  of  the  Church  than 
all  his  survivors  had  done,  he  being  the  last  of  the 
prelates  who  had  received  consecration  before  the  time 
of  the  Commonwealth. 

In  pursuing  the  task  of  noticing  the  Bishops  after 
the  Restoration,  we  now  reach  several  names  of  less 
interest,  but  the  few  scanty  hints  respecting  them  which 

*  "Athene  Oxonienses,"  III.  717 
t  "  Conformists'  Plea,"  35. 


^go  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

I  have  been  able  to  gather  may  suggest  in  some  cases 
an  idea  of  such  Episcopal  qualifications  as  they  pos- 
sessed.    Dr.  William  Nicholson,  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 
defended  and  maintained  the  Church  of  England  against 
its  adversaries  in  the  days  of  its  adversity.     His  works, 
it  is  said  proved  him  to  be  a  person  of  learning,  piety, 
and  prudence,  particularly  his  "  Apology  for  the  Dis- 
cipline of  the  Ancient  Church,"  his  "  Exposition  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed,"  and  his  "  Exposition  of  the  Church 
Catechism,"  subjects  which  indicate  his  Anglican  ortho- 
doxy, and  his  Episcopalian  zeal.     He  is  spoken  of  as 
a  o-reat  friend  of  Dr.  George  Bull,  and  as  much  admired 
by  that  distinguished  theologian  for  his  knowledge  of 
the  Fathers  and  the  Schoolmen,  and  for  his  large  stores 
of  critical  learning.     He  died  in  1672.*     Dr.  Humphrey 
Henchman,  it  may  be  remembered,  had  taken  part  in 
the  Savoy  Conference,  and  is  described  by  Baxter  as 
"  of  the  most  grave,  comely,  reverend  aspect,"  and  of 
"  a  good  insight  in  the  Fathers  and  Councils."!     Con- 
secrated Bishop  of  Salisbury  in  1660,  he  was  translated 
from   Salisbury  to    London,  upon   the   translation   of 
Sheldon  to   Canterbury,  and   manifested  great  alarm 
when  the  excitement  against  Popery  prevailed,  earnestly 
enjoining  upon  his  clergy  the  duty  of  combating  its 
errors  and  superstitions,  although  he   knew  perfectly 
well  that  such  a  course  would  be  offensive  to  the  King. 
He  edited  a  book  once  of  some  celebrity,  entitled  "  The 
Gentleman's  Calling,"  supposed  to  be  a  production  of 
the   author  who  wrote  "  The  Whole  Duty  of  Man." 
Henchman  died  October,  1675.     Dr.  Edward  Rainbow 
had  been  a  minister  in  the  Establishment  throughout 
the  Commonwealth.    Although  deprived  of  the  Master- 

*  Nelson's  "  Life  of  Bishop  Bull,"  206. 
t  "  Life  and  Times,"  II.  363. 


1662-1677.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         4S1 

ship  of  Mag-dalen  College,  Cambridge,  for  refusing  to 
sign  a  protestation  against  King  Charles  I.,  he,  in  the 
year  1652,  obtained  the  living  of  Chesterfield,  in  Essex, 
and,  in  1659,  the  Rectory  of  Benefield,  in  Northampton- 
shire. Restored  to  his  Mastership  at  Cambridge,  and 
made  Dean  of  Peterborough,  soon  after  the  Restoration 
he  rose  to  the  Bishopric  of  Carlisle,  upon  the  translation 
of  Dr.  Sterne  to  the  Archbishopric  of  York.  Rainbow 
died  in  1684;  he  appears  to  have  possessed  an  extra- 
ordinary talent  for  extemporaneous  speaking,  of  which 
he  gave  a  singular  example,  when,  in  the  absence  of 
the  appointed  orator,  he  delivered  an  unpremeditated 
discourse  before  the  University,  to  the  great  admiration 
of  all  who  listened  to  him.  His  style  is  described  as 
florid  and  pedantic,  but  he  is  represented  as  a  man  of 
learning,  of  politeness,  of  devotion,  and  of  charity. 
We  do  not  know  much  respecting  Nicholson,  Hench- 
man, and  Rainbow,  but  some  things  are  said  respecting 
them,  pointing  to  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  suit- 
able to  their  position.  That  which  can  be  gathered 
respecting  the  following  names,  contains  little  or  nothing 
which  is  satisfactory.  Dr.  Joseph  Henshaw,  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Peterborough  in  1663,  had  been 
chaplain  to  the  first  Duke  of  Buckingham,  through 
whose  influence  he  had  obtained  a  Prebend  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Peterborough.  After  suffering  for  his 
loyalty  during  the  Civil  Wars,  and  the  Commonwealth, 
he  lived  for  some  time  at  Chiswick,  in  the  house  of 
Lady  Paulet,  being  described  "  as  a  brand  snatched 
out  of  the  fire."*  He  died  in  1678.  Dr.  Gilbert 
Ironside,  who  had  been  Rector  of  Winterbourn,  in 
Dorsetshire,  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Bristol  im- 
mediately after  the  Restoration.     Wood's  chief  remark 

*  "  Athen.  Oxen.,"  III.  1195. 


482 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 


respecting  him,  and  one  by  no  means  satisfactory,  is, 
that  although  he  had  not  before  "  enjoyed  any  dignity 
in  the  Church,"  or  been  chaplain  to  any  one  of  dis- 
tinction,* he  received  this  promotion  to  a  poor  Bishopric 
because  he  happened  to  be  a  man  of  property.  His 
death  occurred  in  the  year  1671.  Dr.  Walter  Blandford, 
under  the  Commonwealth,  escaped  ejectment  from 
Wadham  College,  Oxford,  by  submitting  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  was  admitted  Warden  before  the  Restora- 
tion. After  that  event  he  became  Vice-Chancellor  ;  in 
the  year  1665  he  became  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and,  in 
1 67 1,  Bishop  of  Worcester.  The  following  notice  of 
his  death  occurs  in  a  letter  written  at  the  time  :— "  It 
may  be  you  have  heard  before  this,  how  upon  Friday 
last,  between  9  and  10  in  the  morning,  it  pleased  God 
to  put  a  period  to  the  pains  and  patience  of  the  good 
Bishop,  who  spent  the  day  before  in  bemoaning  himself 
unto  his  God,  and  sending  up  pious  ejaculations  unto 
Him  ;  and  then,  without  any  reluctancy,  quietly  re- 
signed up  his  soul  and  departed  in  peace  ;  and,  I  doubt 
not,  that  it  was  welcomed  with  an  Euge  bone  serve  ! 
The  next  day  after  I  came  hither,  he  called  me  to  his 
bedside,  and  asked  after  the  welfare  of  his  friends  at 
Court,  and  made  frequent  mention  of  his  gracious 
master  and  King,  prayed  most  heartily  for  him,  and 
said  nothing  laid  him  so  low  as  the  consideration  that 
he  had  not  been  more  serviceable  to  him."  f  But  it  is 
only  just,  when  noticing  the  particular  reference  which 
is  made  to  the  loyalty  of  this  prelate  on  his  deathbed, 
to  remember  that  such  reference  occurs  in  a  corre- 
spondence in  which  the  writer  was  anxious  to  commend 

*  "  Athen.  Oxen.,"  III.  940.    Bliss  says  he  was  Canon  of  York, 
t  The   letter    is    written    by    Dr.    Lamplugh,  Jan.    12,    1675. 
("State  Papers,  Dom.,  Charles  II.") 


1662-1677.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE   RESTORATION.         483 

himself  to  his  Royal  master,  with  the  hope  of  securing 
promotion. 

The  three  Archbishops  of  York  before  the  Revo- 
lution were  not  men  who  exerted  much  influence.  Dr. 
Accepted  Frewen  was  enthroned  on  the  nth  of 
October,  1660,  and  afterwards  enjoyed,  for  twelve 
months,  the  revenues  of  the  see  of  Lichfield,  during- 
which  period  it  remained  without  an  occupant.  Before 
his  Archiepiscopal  career,  which  proved  equally  brief 
and  uneventful,  for  he  died  on  the  28th  of  March,  1664, 
he  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  a  good  scholar, 
and  a  great  orator ;  but  none  of  his  works  were  ever 
published,  except  a  Latin  oration,  and  a  few  verses  on 
the  death  of  Prince  Henry.*  He  was  succeeded  by 
Dr.  Sterne,  who,  though  in  other  respects  not  a  re- 
markable person,  furnishes,  from  the  accounts  given  of 
him,  material  for  a  more  extended  notice  than  his 
predecessor  has  received.  Being  educated  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  made  Master  of  Jesus  College,  he,  for  his 
loyalty,  and  for  conveying  the  College  plate  to 
Charles  L  at  York,  with  other  Royalists,  was  im- 
prisoned, and  otherwise  treated  with  great  cruelty.  In 
a  letter,  which  he  wrote  at  the  time,  he  gives  an 
account  of  his  sufferings,  and,  as  it  indicates  his 
temper,  as  well  as  expresses  the  bitter  recollections 
of  Puritanism,  which  he  carried  with  him  into  his 
Episcopate,  it  will  be  well  to  give  an  extract  from  it : 
— "  This  is  now  the  fourteenth  month  of  my  imprison- 
ment," he  says, — "  nineteen  weeks  in  the  Tower,  thirty 
weeks  in  the  Lord  Peter's  House,  ten  days  in  the  ships, 
and  seven  weeks  here  in  Ely  House.  The  very  dry 
fees  and  rents  of  these  several  prisons  have  amounted 
to    above    iJ^iOO,   besides    diet    and  all   other  charges, 

*  Le  Neve's  "  Lives  of  the  Bishops,"  Part  II.  238. 


484  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

which  have  been  various  and  excessive,  as  in  prisons  is 
usual.  For  the  better  enabling  me  to  maintain  myself 
in  prison,  and  my  family  at  home,  they  have  seized 
upon  all  my  means  which  they  can  lay  their  hands  on. 
At  my  living  near  Cambridge,  they  have  not  only 
taken  the  whole  crop,  that  is  in  a  manner  the  whole 
benefit  of  the  living  (for  the  rest  is  very  little),  but 
plundered  and  sold  whatever  goods  of  mine  they  found 
there,  even  to  the  poultry  in  the  yard,  allowing  me  not 
so  much  as  to  pay  for  his  dinner  that  served  the  Cure. 
They  have  robbed  also  the  child  that  is  yet  unborn, 
of  the  clothes  it  should  be  wrapped  in.  But,  upon  my 
wife's  address  to  the  Committee  at  Cambridge,  they 
had  so  much  humanity  as  to  make  the  sequestrators 
(though  with  much  ado)  restore  them  to  her  again. 
They  have  also  forbidden  our  College  tenants  (all 
within  their  verge)  to  pay  us  any  rents  (for  the  better 
upholding  of  learning  and  the  nurseries  thereof).  If  I 
have  anything  else  that  escapes  their  fingers,  it  is  in 
such  fingers  out  of  which  I  cannot'get  it ;  and  that  also 
I  owe  to  the  same  goodness  of  the  times.  So  that  if 
my  friends'  love  had  not  made  my  credit  better  than  it 
deserves  to  be,  and  supplied  my  occasions,  I  should 
have  kept  but  an  hungry  and  cold  house  both  here 
and  at  home.  And  all  this  while  I  have  never  been  so 
much  as  spoken  withal,  or  called  either  to  give  or 
receive  an  account  why  I  am  here.  Nor  is  anything 
laid  to  my  charge  (not  so  much  as  the  general  crime 
of  being  a  malignant),  no,  not  in  the  warrant  for  my 
commitment.  What  hath  been  wanting  in  human 
justice,  hath  been  (I  praise  God)  supplied  by  Divine 
mercy.  Health  of  body,  and  patience  and  cheerfulness 
of  mind,  I  have  not  wanted,  no,  not  on  ship-board, 
where  we  lay  (the  first  night)  without  anything  under, 


1662-1677.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         485 

or  over  us,  but  the  bare  decks  and  the  clothes  on  our 
backs  ;  and,  after  we  had  some  of  us  got  beds,  were 
not  able  (when  it  rained)  to  lie  dry  in  them  ;  and, 
when  it  was  fair  weather,  were  sweltered  with  heat, 
and  stifled  with  our  own  breaths :  there  being  of  us  in 
that  one  small  Ipswich  coal-ship  (so  low  built,  too, 
that  we  could  not  walk,  nor  stand  upright  in  it)  within 
one  or  two  of  threescore  ;  whereof  six  Knights,  and 
eight  Doctors  in  Divinity,  and  divers  gentlemen  of 
very  good  worth,  that  would  have  been  sorry  to  have 
seen  their  servants  (nay,  their  dogs)  no  better  accom- 
modated. Yet,  among  all  that  company,  I  do  not 
remember  that  I  saw  one  sad  or  dejected  countenance 
all  the  while,  so  strong  is  God  when  we  are  weakest."  * 
Having  been  domestic  chaplain  to  Archbishop  Laud 
Sterne  attended  him  to  the  scaffold,  and  afterwards 
lived  in  obscurity  until  the  Restoration,  after  which  the 
King  made  him  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  in  the  year  1660, 
and  in  1664  transferred  him  to  York,  where  he  died  in 
i683.-f-  Burnet  represents  Sterne  as  "a  sour,  ill- 
tempered  man,"  minding  chiefly  the  enriching  of  his 
family  ;  as  being  suspected  of  Popery,  "  because  he  was 
more  than  ordinarily  compliant  in  all  things  to  the 
Court ; "  and  as  very  zealous  for  the  Duke  of  York.J 
Another  authority  affirms  that  Sterne  was  greatly 
respected,  and  generally  lamented,  and  that  all  his 
clergy  commemorated  his  sweet  condescensions,  his  free 
communications,  faithful  counsels,  exemplary  temper- 
ance, cheerful  hospitality,   and  bountiful  charity.§     It 

*  The  letter  is  dated,  Ely  House,  Oct.  9,  1643.  Le  Neve's 
"  Lives  of  the  Bishops,"  Part  II.  247. 

t  See  anecdote  of  Sterne  in  "Baxter,"  II.  338,  quoted  in  the 
account  of  the  Savoy  Conference  in  this  History. 

X  "  Hist,  of  his  Own  Time,"  I.  590. 

§  This  corresponds  with  the  eulogium  on  his  tombstone. 


486 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 


may  seem  difficult  to  reconcile  these  opposite  state- 
ments, yet,  when  it  is  considered,  that  the  first  of  these 
authorities  would  describe  Sterne  as  he  appeared  to 
people  whom  he  disliked,  and  the  second  as  he  ap- 
peared to  people  whom  he  loved,  it  only  follows  that 
the  Archbishop  showed  himself  an  exceedingly  dis- 
agreeable man  to  such  as  belonged  to  the  opposite 
party,  and  quite  a  pleasant  one  to  those  who  belonged 
to  his  own.  I  may  notice,  that  he  wrote  a  Book  on 
Logic,  assisted  in  Walton's  Polyglot  Bible,  and  is  one 
amongst  other  persons  to  whom,  without  satisfactory 
evidence,  has  been  ascribed  the  authorship  of  the 
"  Whole  Duty  of  Man."  * 

Sterne  was  succeeded  in  the  Northern  primacy,  by 
Dr.  John  Dolben,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  who  died  at 
Bishopthorpe  in  1686,  and  whose  consecration  sermon 
was  preached  by  South — scanty  pieces  of  information 
to  put  together,  but  really  there  is  as  little  interest  in 
his  life,  as  there  is  of  importance  in  his  administration. 
His  biography,  by  Le  Neve,  consists  in  a  notice  of  his 
being  an  Ensign  in  the  Royalist  Army  at  Marston 
Moor,  in  an  enumeration  of  his  preferments,  and  of  the 
Episcopal  consecrations  in  which  he  took  part,  and  in 
the  mention  of  one  or  two  sermons,  which  he  preached 
on  public  occasions.!  Burnet  describes  him  as  "a 
man  of  more  spirit  than  discretion,  and  an  excellent 
preacher  ;  but  of  a  free  conversation,  which  laid  him 
open  to  much  censure  in  a  vicious  Court." 

None  of  the  Welsh  Bishops  require  notice,  except 
those  of  St.  Asaph.  This  see,  after  being  held  by 
George  Griffith,  who  died  in  1668,  was  bestowed  upon 
Henry  Glemham,  who  died  in  1670,  when  Dr.  Isaac 

*  Grainger's  "  Biography,"  III.  232. 
t  Le  Neve,  Part  II.  258. 


1662-1677.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         487 

Barrow,  a  High  Anglican  Churchman,  was  translated 
to  it  from  the  Isle  of  Man.  Of  that  singular  and 
inhospitable  place  he  had  been  consecrated  prelate  in 
1663,  and  many  works  of  charity  and  piety  are  ascribed 
to  him  during  his  seven  years'  episcopate.  The  people 
had  no  chimneys,  and  fixed  bushes  in  the  entrance  to 
their  huts,  which  they  called  making  a  door,  and, 
amidst  all  this  misery,  Barrow  strove  to  introduce 
temporal  comforts  together  with  spiritual  blessings. 
At  St.  Asaph  he  pursued  the  same  benevolent  career 
as  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  improving  his  cathedral  and  his 
palace,  and  also  building  almshouses.  Barrow  was 
uncle  to  the  celebrated  Divine  of  the  same  name,  but 
he  does  not  appear  to  have  possessed  any  of  the 
ability,  or  much  of  the  learning  of  his  nephew  ;  and  it 
is  a  singular  instance  of  contrast  between  the  two,  that, 
whereas  the  Master  of  Trinity  has  obtained  an  undying 
renown  for  Protestantism  by  his  treatise  on  the  Pope's 
supremacy,  the  prelate  has  been  brought  into  an 
equivocal  position  by  the  inscription  on  his  monument 
in  St.  Asaph  Cathedral,  where  he  was  buried  in  1680 : 
"  Orate  pro  conservo  vestro,  tit  inveniat  misericordiam  m 
die  Doininir  He  was  succeeded  by  William  Lloyd,  a 
distinguished  man,  who  can  be  more  advantageously 
described  when  we  reach  the  story  of  the  Seven  Bishops 
in  1688.* 

The  most  unworthy  Bishop  in  this  reign  was  Thomas 
Wood,  who,  on  the  death  of  Hacket,  in  167 1,  received 
the  see  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry.  His  elevation  is 
attributed  to  the  interest  of  the  infamous  Duchess  of 
Cleveland,  whose  favour  he  secured  by  contriving   a 

*  In  addition  to  the  particular  books  which  I  have  noticed,  I 
may  state  that  my  chief  authorities  for  these  notices  of  the  Bishops 
are  Wood  and  Salmon. 


488  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

match  between  his  niece  and  ward,  a  rich  heiress,  and 
the  Duke  of  Southampton,  the  Duchess'  son.  There 
appears  to  have  been  some  hesitation  respecting  this 
exercise  of  patronage  even  in  the  mind  of  Charles 
himself;  and  the  result  of  it  confirmed  the  worst 
apprehensions  of  Wood's  unfitness  for  the  Episcopal 
office,  for  he  entirely  neglected  his  duties,  and  con- 
stantly lived  out  of  his  diocese.  The  money  which  he 
received  from  the  heirs  of  his  predecessor  to  help  him 
in  building  a  palace,  he  appropriated  to  his  own 
purposes,  and,  under  the  pretence  of  preparing  for  the 
erection,  cut  down  a  quantity  of  timber,  which  he  sold, 
putting  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  into  his  own  pocket. 
His  scandalous  conduct  incurred  suspension,  a  rare 
circumstance  indeed  in  the  history  of  the  Episcopal 
bench :  and  the  form  of  his  suspension  is  preserved  in 
Bancroft's  "  Register,"  amongst  the  Lambeth  Archives. 
From  this  suspension  the  delinquent  was  relieved  in 
1686,  although  no  improvement  took  place  in  his  con- 
duct* 

The  prelates  whom  I  have  noticed  were  consecrated 
a  few  of  them  before  the  Civil  Wars,  some  of  them 
shortly  after  the  Restoration,  all  of  them  a  considerable 
time  before  Sheldon's  death  in  1677.  The  study  of 
their  characters,  therefore,  throws  light  upon  the 
administration  of  Church  affairs  up  to  the  year  just 
mentioned.  There  are,  moreover,  two  other  Bishops, 
consecrated  within  three  years  before  Sheldon's  death, 
who  claim  a  passing  notice.  The  Episcopal  influence 
of  the  first  was  brief,  that  of  the  second  lengthened  and 
somewhat  peculiar.  The  first  is  Dr.  Ralph  Brideoake, 
who  had  been  chaplain  in  the  Earl  of  Derby's  family, 
and  had  witnessed  the  heroism  of  the  Countess  during 
*  D'Oyley's  Life  of  Bancroft,  I.  194. 


1CC2-1G77.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE   RESTORATION.         489 

the  siege  of  Latham  House  ;  but  made  of  different 
material  from  her  Ladyship,  he  submitted  to  the  times, 
held  the  Vicarage  of  Witney  in  Oxfordshire,  and  of  St. 
Bartholomew  by  the  Royal  Exchange,  under  the  Com- 
monwealth. Notwithstanding  his  having  so  far  com- 
plied with  the  existing  powers  as  to  accept  the  office 
of  a  Commissioner  for  trial  and  approbation  of  minis- 
ters, he  obtained  at  the  Restoration,  by  another  form 
of  subserviency,  first,  the  Living  of  Standish  in  Lan- 
cashire ;  next,  the  Deanery  of  Salisbury ;  and  at  last,  in 
1674,  the  Bishopric  of  Chichester,  holding  with  it  in 
commendam  a  Canonry  at  Windsor.  There,  in  1678,  he 
died  and  was  buried.*  The  second  of  these  two 
Bishops  was  Dr.  William  Lloyd,  who  matriculated  at 
Cambridge,  and  was  successively  Vicar  of  Battersea  in 
Surrey,  Chaplain  to  the  English  Merchants'  Factory  at 
Portugal,  and  Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's.  He  attained 
to  the  Episcopal  Bench  in  1675,  first  presiding  over  the 
see  of  Llandaff",  then  over  the  see  of  Peterborough, 
lastly  over  the  see  of  Norwich.  All  that  I  can  say  of 
his  character  is  that  he  is  praised  by  Salmon,  the 
admiring  biographer  of  the  Bishops  after  the  Restora- 
tion.f 

Such  is  the  substance  of  what  I  have  been  able  to 
gather  respecting  the  lives  and  characters  of  the 
Caroline  prelates.  They  were  far  from  being  all  alike. 
Charges  are  brought  against  them  as  a  class,  which 
individuals  amongst  them  do  not  deserve.  They  were 
not   all    of  the   same   disposition,   although    they   all 

*  Yet  it  is  said  in  his  epitaph,  in  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor, 
-—"Exule  Carolo  II.,  bonis  multatus,  reverse,  a  sacris,  hujus 
Capella;  Canonicus,  Decanus  Sarisburiensis,  postea  Cicestrensis 
Episcopvis,  ^iKoi^ivos  (pixdyaBos,"  etc.,  etc. 

t  This  Lloyd  is  to  be  distinguished  from  him  of  the  same  name 
who  was  one  of  the  Seven  Bishops. 


490  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIIL 

identified  themselves  with  the  same  system.  The  reader 
will  have  noticed  that  facts  prove  Sheldon,  Ward, 
Morley,  and  Cosin  to  have  been  more  or  less  what 
Anglicans  would  esteem  strict  disciplinarians,  whatNon- 
conformists,  and  others  beside  them,  will  more  justly 
pronounce  religious  persecutors  ;  and  what  we  know  of 
Racket,  Wren,  and  Gunning,  will  show  that  they  held 
principles  adapted  to  make  them  like  those  of  their 
brethren  who  have  just  been  named.  It  should  be 
remembered,  however,  that  prelates  had  no  longer  the 
power  they  once  possessed.  They  could  not  do  what 
their  predecessors  had  done  before  the  Restoration  ;  for 
the  High  Commission  Court  was  abolished,  the  ex 
officio  oath  could  no  longer  be  administered,  and  certain 
penalties  once  inflicted  could  be  repeated  no  more. 
All  the  Bishops  now  mentioned  suffered  in  the  Civil 
Wars,  yet  Racket  retained  the  living  of  Cheam 
throughout  the  troubles,  Ward  took  his  degree  at 
Oxford,  and  became  president  of  Trinity  College  before 
the  Restoration,  and  Gunning's  ministry  as  an  Episco- 
palian was  winked  at  by  Oliver  Cromwell.  Wilkins, 
Reynolds,  Pearson,  Croft,  Laney,  and  Earle  were  more 
or  less  indulgent  to  Puritan  clergymen  within  the 
Church,  and  not  so  unfriendly  to  those  outside,  as  some 
others  were  ;  also  it  should  be  noticed,  that  the  first 
three  held  academic  or  ecclesiastical  preferment  under 
the  Commonwealth  ;  and  the  last  three  were  compelled 
to  sacrifice  emolument  and  endure  hardship.  Passing 
over  the  worst  or  the  least  known  of  the  Bench,  what 
shall  be  said  of  the  best  and  most  renowned  }  They 
were  men  of  ability,  of  learning,  of  unimpeachable 
morals,  hospitable  and  kind,  orthodox  and  devout  ;  but 
is  there  one  amongst  them  to  whom  posterity  can  point 
as  possessing,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  true  Episcopal 


1662-1677.]     THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION!.         491 

faculty,  the  gift  of  spiritual  overseership,  of  a  deep 
insight  into  Christ's  truth,  into  God's  providence,  and 
into  men's  souls  ?  Is  there  one  who  excelled  in  fold- 
ing the  sheep  which  were  lost  ?  one  who  struck  the 
world's  conscience,  making  it  feel  how  awful  goodness 
is  ?  Richard  Baxter  was  far  from  perfect,  nor  did  he 
possess  qualifications  adapted  to  the  administration  of 
a  diocese,  but  had  he  accepted  the  mitre  which  he 
refused,  would  he  have  found  sitting  by  his  side  an 
equal  in  spiritual  power  ? 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  where  it  is  wise  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  the  clergy  after  the  Restora- 
tion. It  is  seen  what  sort  of  men  the  diocesans  were  ; 
we  ought  to  inquire  what  sort  of  men  ministered  in 
their  dioceses.  Publications  of  the  day  bear  witness  to 
the  fact,  often  overlooked,  that  there  were  clergy  in 
the  Establishment  whose  sympathies  leaned  towards 
Puritanism.*  The  Bishop  of  Bristol  had  much  trouble 
with  a  person  of  this  description,  a  Prebendary  of  the 
cathedral,  who  describes  the  conduct  of  his  diocesan  in 
the  following  manner  : — "  He  citeth  me  afresh  on  pains 
of  suspension  ;  and  tells  me,  at  my  appearance,  that  I 
was  a  saucy,  proud  fellow,  of  a  Presbyterian  hypocritical 
heart,  upbraiding  my  preaching,  praying,  speech,  face, 
and  whole  ministry,  very  opprobriously,  before  all  the 
people." t  Complaints  occur  of  conforming  Noncon- 
formists, as  wearing  neither  girdle  nor  cassock,  being  a 
la  mode  and  in  qiterpo  divinus,  as  setting  up  miserable 
readers  to  make  the  Liturgy  contemptible,  and  as 
engaging  for  an  hour  in  extempore  prayer.  They 
preached  over,  it  is  alleged,  "  the  old  one's  notes,"  full 

*  In  "  Ichabod  ;  or.  Five  Groans  of  the  Church,"  mention  is 
made  of  1342  factious  clergymen. 

t  "  Dom.,  Charles  II.,"  1677,  Sept.  12th. 


492  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

of  cant  about  "  indwelling,  soul-saving,  and  heart-sup- 
porting ; "  they  "  affected  a  mortified  countenance,"  and 
"  set  the  Sabbath  above  holidays,"  and  "  a  pure  heart 
above  the  surplice,"  and  were  men  "  overflowing  with 
the  milk  and  honey  of  doctrine,  instead  of  the  inculca- 
tion of  honesty  and  obedience  and  good  works."  * 

From  these  and  other  circumstances  it  appears  that 
the  Act  of  Uniformity  did  by  no  means  accomplish  all 
its  purposes.  Some  clergymen  were  Conformists  only  in 
name.  In  fact,  whilst  the  Act  drove  out  all  the  best 
and  most  eminent  of  the  Puritan  class,  there  still  were 
many,  of  a  pliable  nature,  who  having  opposed  Epis- 
copacy, and  sworn  to  the  Covenant,  and  adopted  the 
Directory,  were  content  to  nestle  under  the  wings  of 

*  "  Mystery  and  Iniquity  of  Nonconformity,"  1664.  A  curious 
tract  entitled  "  The  Ceremony-Monger,  his  Character,  in  Six 
Chapters,"  describes  "  bowing  to  the  altar,  implicit  faith,  reading 
dons  of  the  pulpit,  reading  the  Psalms,  etc.,  alternately,  bowing  at 
the  name  of  Jesus,  unlighted  candles  on  the  altar,  organs,  church 
music,  and  other  popishlike  and  foppish  ceremonials,"  all  of  which 
are  unmercifully  ridiculed.  The  author  is  E.  Hickeringhill,  Rector 
of  the  Rectory  of  All  Saints,  in  Colchester.  There  is  no  date  to 
the  publication,  but  from  abundant  internal  evidence,  it  must  have 
been  written  after  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  Hickeringhill  is  justly 
described  by  Chalmers  as  "a  half  crazy  kind  of  writer."  He  was 
a  pensioner  of  St.  John's,  Cambs.,  in  1650;  junior  Bachelor  of 
Gonville  and  Caius  ;  Lieut,  in  the  English  army  in  Scotland,  and 
Captain  in  Fleetwood's  Regiment.  He  took  orders  in  1661  or 
1662,  being  ordained  by  Bishop  Sanderson  ;  became  Vicar  of 
Boxted,  Essex,  in  October,  1662,  and  about  the  same  time.  Rector 
of  All  Saints,  Colchester.  In  reference  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  he 
says  it  is  an  unnatural,  impossible,  irrational,  wicked,  and  vain 
attempt.  "  Go  teach  God,"  he  says,  "  to  make  a  new  heaven,  with 
uniformity  of  stars  and  skies. — teach  Him  to  make  men  uniform," 
etc.  Hickeringhill  wrote  "  The  Second  Part  of  Naked  Truth,"  and 
"  A  Vindication  "  of  it.  The  copy  of  it  which  I  have  seen  is  in  the 
Library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  The  Bishop  of  London 
brought  an  action  against  him,  in  March,  1682,  for  slander.  A 
report  of  the  trial  may  be  found  in  the  same  Library,  "  Political 
Tracts,"  Y  24.  Hickeringhill  held  his  Rectory  until  his  death  in 
1708.  ^ 


1662-1677.]     THE    CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         493 

the  Anglican  Church,  as  soon  as  she  arose,  like  a 
Phoenix  out  of  its  ashes.  The  miserable  condition  of 
some  of  the  clergy  holding  country  benefices  or  cures 
became  the  subject  of  satirical  remark.  In  a  style  of 
badinage,  which  aimed  at  being  clever,  one  author 
speaks  of  a  clergyman  as  trying  to  "  weather  out  his 
melancholy  by  retiring  into  the  little  hole  over  the 
oven,  called  his  study  (contrived  there,  I  suppose,  to 
save  firing)  ;  a  pretty  little  Vatican,  the  whole  furniture 
whereof  is  a  German  system,  a  Geneva  Bible,  and 
concordance  of  the  same  ;  a  budget  of  old'  stitched 
sermons,  some  broken  girths,  with  two  or  three  yards 
of  whipcord  behind  the  door,  and  a  saw  and  hammer 
to  prevent  dilapidations."  *  Of  course  no  reliance  can 
be  placed  on  such  a  trenchant  description,  but  it  shows 
the  way  in  which  clergymen  were  talked  of.  With 
gravity,  and  apparent  truthfulness,  it  is  stated  elsewhere 
that  clergymen  sprung  from  the  humbler  ranks,  and  it 
is  mentioned,  as  a  novelty,  and  a  subject  for  congratu- 
lation, that  a  few  of  aristocratic  birth  had  entered  holy 
orders.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  affirmed,  that  an 
attorney,  a  shopkeeper,  and  a  common  artizan  would 
hardly  change  their  worldly  condition  with  ordinary 
pastors.t     Many  men,  episcopally  ordained,   acted  as 

*  Quotation  in  "  Vindication  of  the  Clergy,"  82. 

t  '~Chamberlayne,"  Part  I.  205,  207.  The  following  entries 
indicate  the  poverty  of  clergymen  : — 

"  1669.  Given  to  a  poor  minister  who  preached  here,  at  the 
church,  April  25th,  3^-.  Bestowed  on  him  in  ale,  4^.  Feb.  13, 
1669.  Collected  then,  by  the  churchwardens,  in  the  church,  upon 
a  testimonial,  and  at  the  request  of  the  Lord  Bishop  of  York,  for 
one  Mr.  Wilmot,  a  poor  minister,  8^.  \d.  1670,  April  loth.  Given 
then  by  the  neighbours,  to  a  poor  mendicant  minister,  one  Mr. 
John  Rhodes,  who  then  preached  here,  and  after  the  sermon  stood 
m  the  middle  aisle  to  receive  the  charity  of  the  people,  the  sum 
\2s.  yi.  1670,  July  3rd.  Given  then  by  the  neighbours  to  a 
poor  lame  itinerary,  one  Mr.  Walker,  who  preached  here,  and  after 


494 


RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 


chaplains.  They  conducted  family  worship,  morning 
and  evening  ;  in  some  cases  read  and  expounded,  and 
prayed  before  dinner.*  The  satirist  already  quoted 
asks,  "  Shall  we  trust  them  in  some  good  gentlemen's 
houses,  there  to  perform  holy  things  1  With  all  my 
heart,  so  that  they  may  not  be  called  down  from  their 
studies  to  say  grace  to  every  health  ;  that  they  may 
have  a  little  better  wages  than  the  cook  or  butler ;  as 
also,  that  there  be  a  groom  in  the  house,  besides  the 
chaplain  :  (for  sometimes  into  the  ten  pounds  a  year 
they  crowd  the  looking  after  a  couple  of  geldings)  ; 
and  that  he  may  not  be  sent  from  table  picking  his 
teeth,  and  sighing,  with  his  hat  under  his  arm,  whilst 
the  knight  and  my  lady  eat  up  the  tarts  and  chickens. 
It  might  be  also  convenient  if  he  were  suffered  to  speak 
now  and  then  in  the  parlour,  besides  at  grace  and 
prayer-time ;  and  that  my  cousin  Abigail  and  he  sit 
not  too  near  one  another  at  meals."  f  The  spirit  of  the 
writer  is  apparent ;  it  is  not  such  as  to  inspire  our 
sympathy,  or  secure  our  confidence,  but  if  some  of  the 
clergy  at  the  time  had  not  been  very  ignominiously 
treated,  surely  no  one  would  have  hazarded  the  carica- 
ture. 

The  ignorance  of  the  clergy  was  a  topic  for  abun- 
dant abuse.  Those,  it  is  said,  who  could  spout  a  few 
Greek  and  Latin  words  for  the  benefit  of  the  squire, 
pitched  their  discourses  so  as  to  accommodate  them- 

the  sermon  stood  in  the  middle  aisle  to  receive  the  people's 
charity,  which  was  9^.  7,dr  (See  "  History  of  Morley  Old  Chapel," 
by  the  Rev.  J.  Wonnacott.) 

*  Hunter's  "  Life  of  Heywood,"  336. 

t  "Grounds  and  Occasions,"  19.  It  is  from  this  paragraph, 
and  other  similar  authorities,  that  Macaulay  draws  materials  for 
his  humorous  one-sided  satire  on  the  clergy.  ("  Hist,  of  Eno-land  " 
I.  340.)  '^        ' 


16G2-1677.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.         495 

selves  to  the  fine  clothes,  and  abundance  of  ribbons,  in 
the  highest  seats  of  the  church,  instead  of  seeking  to 
instruct  those  who  had  to  mind  the  plough  and  mend 
the  hedge.  Cities  and  Corporations  furnished  "  ten  or 
twelve-pound-men,"  whose  parts  and  education  were 
no  more  than  sufficient  for  reading  the  Lessons,  after 
twice  conning  them  over.  "  An  unlearned  rout  of  con- 
temptible people,"  rushed  into  holy  orders,  just  to  read 
the  prayers,  although  they  understood  "very  little  more 
than  a  hollow  pipe  made  of  tin  or  wainscot."  *  Bad 
taste  in  the  composition  of  sermons  is  also  attributed 
to  the  clergy,  for  which  they  are  unmercifully  ridiculed. 
Many  of  the  examples,  however,  are  taken  from  the 
preaching  of  the  most  fanatical  amongst  the  Puritans. 
Men  cannot  buy  books  without  money ;  and  of  the 
scantiness  of  clerical  libraries  at  that  time  there  can  be 
no  question.  Much  more  trustworthy,  and  deserving 
of  attention  than  some  of  the  particulars  just  supplied, 
is  the  anecdote  of  Tenison,  that  he  had,  in  his  parish  of 
St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields,  "  thirty  or  forty  young  men 
in  orders,  either  governors  to  young  gentlemen,  or 
chaplains  to  noblemen,"  who,  being  reproved  by  him 
"  for  frequenting  taverns  or  coffee-houses,  told  him 
they  would  study  or  employ  their  time  better  if  they 
had  books."  Hence  originated  the  foundation  of  the 
Tenison  Library.f 

Between  the  poor  rural  clergy,  with  equally  indigent 
chaplains  and  curates  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  richly 
beneficed  and  dignified  members  of  the  order  on  the 
other,  a  broad  distinction  must  be  drawn  in  point  of 
attainments  and  eloquence,  if  not  in  point  of  original 

*  "  Grounds   and  Occasions,"    107.      North  complains  of  his 
father's  chaplain  being  very  ilhterate.     ("  Lives,"  III.  312.) 
t  Evelyn's  "Diary,"  1684,  Feb.  23rd. 


496  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND  [Chap.  XIII. 

ability.  In  London,  in  the  Universities,  and  in  the 
high  places  of  the  Church,  there  were  men,  especially 
towards  the  close  of  the  period  under  our  review,  who 
for  scholastic  learning,  and  ministerial  capacity,  were 
illustrious  ornaments  of  their  sacred  profession.  Many 
pages  of  this  history  bear  witness  to  that  fact.  Still, 
the  contempt  in  which  the  clergy  were  too  generally 
held  is  admitted  by  those  who,  at  the  time,  sought  to 
make  the  best  of  the  subject.  Writers  who  vilified  the 
Church  were  answered  by  writers  who  vindicated  it. 
Paper  wars,  fierce  and  prolonged,  were  waged  in  a  spirit 
which  leaves  little  to  choose  between  the  combatants. 
Those  who  appeared  as  defenders  of  the  accused, 
denied  the  unqualified  application  of  the  charges  which 
they  could  not  deny  altogether.  They  triumphantly 
cited  admissions  extorted  from  adversaries,  that  the 
clergy  of  the  land  had  considerably  improved,  and 
that  it  was  a  "  sign  of  nothing  but  perfect  madness, 
ignorance,  and  stupidity,  not  to  acknowledge  that  the 
present  Church  of  England  affords  as  considerable 
scholars,  and  as  solid  and  eloquent  preachers,  as  are 
anywhere  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Christian  world."* 
They  contended  that  the  illiteracy  and  bad  taste  com- 
plained of  were  by  no  means  so  common  as  their 
assailants  alleged,  and  that  as  to  the  latter  accusation, 
it  fell  chiefly  upon  the  Puritan  remnant.  They  com- 
plained, as  bitterly  as  those  on  the  other  side,  of  the 
poverty  of  clergymen,  and  their  inability  to  purchase 
books,  and  then  they  urged,  as  reasons  for  the  contempt 
in  which  they  were  held,  not  only  straitened  circum- 
stances and  a  humble  condition,  but  the  calumnies  of 

„  *  "Vindication  of  the  Clergy"  (1672),  122.     The  author  of  the 
C^rounds  and  Occasions  "  followed  up  his  work  by  "  Some  obser- 
vations upon  the  answer." 


1662-1677.]      THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.       497 

their  enemies  ;  the  origin  of  these  calumnies  being- 
distributed  amongst  Libertines,  Jesuits,  and  Noncon- 
formists,* and  the  want  of  discipline  in  the  Church 
being  also  loudly  lamented.f 

In  connection  with  these  illustrations  I  may  observe 
that  Articles  of  Visitation  in  those  days  throw  light  on 
clerical  costume,  if  a  word  or  two  may  be  added  on 
so  trifling  a  matter.  Amongst  other  things  the  78th 
Canon  is  recognized  as  obligatory,  and  churchwardens 
are  solemnly  asked,  "  Doth  your  parson,  vicar,  or  curate 
usually  wear  such  apparel  as  is  prescribed  by  the  canon, 
that  is  to  say,  a  gown  with  a  standing  collar,  and  wide 
sleeves  strait  at  the  hands,  and  a  square  cap  ;  or  doth 
he  go  at  any  time  abroad  in  his  doublet  and  hose  with- 
out coat  or  cassock,  or  doth  he  use  to  wear  any  light 
coloured  stockings }  doth  he  wear  any  coife,  and 
wrought  night-caps,  or  only  plain  night-caps  of  silk, 
satin,  or  velvet  1  and  in  his  journeying,  doth  he  usually 
wear  a  cloak  with  sleeves,  commonly  called  the  priest's 
cloak  without  guards,  welts,  long  buttons  or  cuts  t  "  j 

That  which  has  been  now  said  relates  to  the  circum- 
stances, the  education,  the  preaching,  and  the  habits  of 
clergymen.  What  estimate  is  to  be  formed  of  their 
religious  and  moral  character  ?  It  is  a  common  vice  to 
pass  sweeping  censures  on  a  whole  party.  Most  people 
fall  into  it  when  speaking  of  opponents,  and  protest 
against  it  when  speaking  of  friends.  Wishing  to  avoid 
that  fault  I  would  first  say,  undoubtedly  many  clergy- 

*  "  Vindication,"  100,  ei  seq.  See  "  Answer  to  the  Grounds  and 
Occasions"  (1671),  14.  Another  book  was  pubHshed — "  Hiera- 
gonisticon,"  being  an  answer  to  the  two  books  on  the  "  Grounds 
and  Occasions"  (1672).  Five  additional  letters  were  published 
by  the  author  of  the  "  Grounds  and  Occasions,"  etc. 

t  "Vindication,"  108. 

X  "Appendix  to  Second  Report  of  Commission  on  Ritual,"  628. 

VOL.  III.  2    K 


498  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

men  might  be  found  at  that  time  who  were  most 
exemplary  in  their  Hves,  and  two  distinguished  instances 
of  the  High  Anglican  type  may  be  cited  in  proof.  Ken 
was  successively  Incumbent  of  Little  Easton,  Bright- 
stone,  and  East  Woodhay.  The  purity  of  his  life,  the 
devoutness  of  his  temper,  the  eloquence  of  his  preach- 
ing, and  his  assiduous  discharge  of  ministerial  duties, 
are  amongst  the  cherished  memories  of  the  English 
Church.  With  him  his  neighbour,  Isaac  Milles,  the 
simple-hearted  Rector  of  Highclere,  is  worthy  of  being 
associated.  For  nine  and  thirty  years,  on  an  income 
of  ;^ioo  per  annum,  this  worthy  minister  of  Christ 
laboured  for  the  welfare  of  his  rural  flock.  Filled  with 
the  charity  which  thinketh  no  evil,  "  he  would  often 
rise  up  and  leave  the  company  rather  than  hear  even  a 
bad  man  reproached  behind  his  back."  So  hospitable 
vv^as  he,  "  that  he  used  to  be  much  displeased,  if  any 
poor  person  was  sent  from  his  house  without  tasting  a 
cup  of  his  ale,"  and  "  he  turned  a  perfect  beggar  in 
order  to  get  from  others  something  to  supply  their 
wants."  He  walked  "  every  day  in  the  week  to  read 
the  service  in  the  parish  church,"  and  was  "  a  constant 
visitant  by  the  bedside  of  the  sick  and  dying."* 

But  there  is  another  side  to  the  picture  :  pamphleteers 
accused  the  clergy  not  only  of  ignorance,  and  of  fanati- 
cism, but  also  of  immorality.  This  charge  is  but  faintly 
touched  in  the  particular  controversy  just  reported  ; 
but  a  writer,  at  an  earlier  period,  who  fiercely  assails 
the  ministers  of  the  Establishment,  declares  how  the 
Church  resents  the  scandalous  profaneness  of  many  of 
her  sons  ;  and  reproaches  the  reverend  in  function,  who 

*  "  An  Account  of  the  Life  and  Conversation  of  the  Reverend 
and  Worthy  Mr.  Isaac  Milles,"  quoted  in  "  Ken's  Life,  by  a  Lay- 
man," 48-50. 


1662-1677.]     THE   CHURCH  OF  THE  RESTORATION.        499 

were  shameful   in    life,  those  who  were   disorderly  in 
holy  orders,  and  who,  bound    to  walk  circumspectly, 
reel  notwithstanding,  having  their  conversation  in  the 
ale-house  as  well  as  in  heaven.     He  proceeds  in  the 
name  of  the   Church   to   complain   of  unconscionable 
simony,  and  of  encroaching  pluralities  ;  saying,  "  Lately 
you  were  thought  incapable  of  one  living,  now  three, 
four,   or  five  cannot  suffice  you  ;  "   and  the  whole   is 
wound  up  by  charges  of  non-residence,  whereupon  the 
writer  inveighs  in  most  violent  terms,  against  the  em- 
ployment of  curates.*     Such  testimony  must  be  taken 
only  for  w^hat  it  is  worth.     But  it  seems  incredible  that, 
without  a  substratum   of  facts,  any  one  would  make 
these   bold   assertions.     Other   writers   of  the   period 
speak  of  the  clergy  in  terms  which  give  a  mean  opinion 
of  their   religious  character.      Philip  Henry  states   of 
many  who  conformed,  that,  since  they  did  so,  from  un- 
blamable, orderly,  pious  men,  they  became  exceedingly 
dissolute  and  profane.f     Burnet  alludes  to  the  luxury 
and  sloth  of  dignitaries  "  who  generally  took  more  care 
of  themselves  than  of  the  Church."  %     Pepys  records, 
that  there  "  was  much  discourse  about  the  bad  state  of 
the  Church,"  and  how  the  clergy  were  "  come  to  be 
men  of  no  worth  in  the  world."§  The  King  himself  laid 
at  their  door  the  blame  of  the  spread  of  Nonconformity  ; 
for  "  they  thought  of  nothing  but  to  get  good  benefices, 
and  to  keep  a  good  table." ||      It  was  deemed  necessary 
in  Articles  of  Visitation  to  inquire  whether  the  clergy 

*  "  Ichabod  ;  or  Five  Groans  of  the  Church  "  (1663). 

t  "  Life  of  PhiUp  Henry,"  loi.  He  made  this  remark  at  the 
close  of  the  year  1662.  In  Hunter's  "  Life  of  Oliver  Heywood," 
p.  149,  a  wretched  account  is  given  of  the  six  ministers  who  suc- 
ceeded him. 

X  "  History  of  his  Own  Time,"  L  186. 

§  "  Diary,"  1668.  Feb.  i6th.  1 1  Burnet,  L  258. 


500  RELIGION  IN  ENGLAND.  [Chap.  XIII. 

resorted  to  taverns,  or  gave  themselves  to  drinking,  or 
riot,  or  played  at  unlawful  games.*  The  rush  of  parish 
ministers  out  of  London  during  the  Plague  testifies  to 
a  want  of  devotedness  and  self-sacrifice,  and  the  awful 
dissoluteness  of  public  manners,  looked  at  in  connec- 
tion with  all  circumstances,  indicates  not  merely  the 
failure  of  a  faithful  ministry  in  some  cases,  but  the 
consequence  of  a  careless  and  inefficient  one  in  many 
more.  Poverty  and  dependence,  or  even  want  of 
learning,  will  not  account  for  all  the  clerical  humiliation 
in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  A  half-starved  cure  with 
love  for  his  parishioners,  and  a  ragged  friar  of  true 
sanctity,  had  a  far  different  social  standing  on  the 
Continent,  from  many  Protestant  curates  and  chaplains 
at  that  time  in  England. 

*  "Appendix  to  Second  Report  of  Commission  on  Ritual," 628. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. — Page  178  of  this  Volume, 

Points  in  which  the  Prayer  Book,  according  to  "  Cardwell's 
Conferences,"  was  modified  in  1662,  in  comphance  with  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Puritans. 

This  Hst  of  alterations  has  been  given  me  by  my  kind  friend,^ 
Dr.  Swainson. 

Page  314.  Lord's  Prayer.  The  Doxology  was  added  at  the 
beginning  of  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  in  the  Post-Com- 
munion service,  and  in  the  Churching  of  women. 

Page  315.     Plain  time.     Akered. 

„     316.     Collect  for  Christmas  Day.     This  day  altered. 
„     316.  „         „    Whit  Sunday.  „      „     altered. 

„     317.     Very  many  of  the  Collects  were  altered. 
„     317.     "  Tim.e  assigned  not  sufficient."     Rubric  altered. 
„     317.     The  next  Rubric  was  altered  too,  though  insuffi- 
ciently. 

Page  318.  [The  preface  asked  for  was  inserted  in  the  written 
book  which  we  saw  in  the  Library  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
then  erased.*] 

Page  319,  line  10.  Exhortation  altered;  the  words  are  read 
now  on  the  Sunday  before  the  administration,  and  not  "  at  the 
Communion." 

Page  319,  fine  30.  The  confession  is  now  appointed  to  be  made 
"  by  one  of  the  Ministers,"  not  by  one  of  the  people. 

Page  320,  fine  11,  &c.  The  words  "this  day"  altered,  "as  at 
this  time." 

Page  320,  line  17,  &c.  This  is  interesting.  My  note  from  the 
MS.  book  is  this.  The  words  there  ran,  "that  our  sinful  bodies 
and  souls  may  be  made  clean  by  His  body,  and  washed  through 

*  I  examined  the  books  once  with  Dr.  Swainson,  and  once  with  the 
Dean  of  Westminster. 


502  APPENDIX. 

His  most  precious  blood."     This  would  have  pleased  the  Puritan 
party.     It  was  however  altered  back. 

Page  321,  line  i.  Thus  it  was  in  accordance  with  the  wishes 
of  the  same  party  that  the  marginal  directions  were  added  in  the 
prayer  of  Consecration. 

Page  322,  line  15.  The  Rubric  was  added  with  alterations,  not 
however  affecting  the  point  at  issue. 

Page  324,  line  5.     Expressions  altered.     (Query,  sufficiently  .'') 
„     324,    „  18.     "  Doest   thou   forsake?"     The   words  were 
altered,  but  not  as  the  Puritans  desired. 

Page  325,  line  10.  Unless  by  a  laiufiil  minister.  (Altered  ac- 
cordingly.) 

Page  325,    „    13.     [No  part  is  reiterated.] 

„     327,    „      I.     Altered.    Note  the  praise  of  that  part  of  the 
Catechism  which  concerns  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacraments. 

Page  327,  line  20.  [Rubric  was  altered,  whether  satisfactorily, 
I  question.] 

Page  327,  line  32.     The  words  "  are  come  to  a  competent  age," 
were  added,  and  another  Rubric  limiting  the  children  to  be  pre- 
sented, to  those  whom  the  Citrate  shall  think  Jit. 
Page  328,  line  23.     Altered  slightly. 
„     329,    „    30.     Altered. 

»     33°)    ;>    31-     Depart.     Altered  to  "  Do  part." 
»    331,    »    13-     Omitted. 
»     33 1 J    »    18.     Altered. 
!.     331,    »    30-     Altered. 

»     333>    )»    14-     Altered.     "Resurrection"  into  "the  resur- 
rection." 

Page  333,    „    22.     Altered. 
V     334,    „    1-9.  Altered. 
„     334,    „    II.     The  Psalm  121  altered. 
So  much  for  details. 
I  will  make  a  few  more  notes  in  the  same  direction  :— 
The  prayer,  "  O  God,  whose  nature  and  property,"  altered  as 
recommended  in  1641.     (Cardwell,  page  277,  line  10.) 
Thanksgiving  added.     (Cardwell,  page  309,  line  30.) 
New   Translation  used  in  Gospels  and  Epistles.     (Cardwell, 
page  307,  line  4,  &c.) 

"  Portion  of  Scripture  appointed  for  the  Epistles."  fCardwell, 
page  308,  line  13.) 

The  first  Rubric  in  the  Burial  Service,  "  Here  it  is  to  be  noted, 
inc.,    would  clearly  gratify  the  Puritans. 

The  position  of  the  woman  at  Churching  was  altered.  (Card- 
well,  page  334.)  ^ 


APPENDIX. 


503 


No.  II. — In  connection  with  Chapter  VII.  of  this 
Vokime. 

The  number  of  the  ejected  is  a  vexed  question.  We  possess  no 
satisfactory  data,  and  I  fear  we  shall  never  obtain  such  a  know- 
ledge of  facts  as  will  enable  us  to  reach  a  precise  conclusion. 
Ecclesiastical  registers,  from  their  incompleteness  in  many  cases, 
afford  only  imperfect  information. 

Calamy  and  Palmer  speak  of  ministers  '■'■  ejected  or  silenced^'' 
and  the  distinction  is  important.  Some  were  silenced  who  were 
not  ejected  ;  such  as  simple  candidates  for  the  ministry  who  had 
neither  benefice  nor  curacy,  and  others  who  had  been  ordained,  but 
at  the  period  of  the  Restoration  were  only  occasional  preachers 
holding  no  parochial  or  official  position.  The  Act  of  Uniformity 
excluded  them  from  the  churches  of  the  Establishment,  and  they 
were  not  allowed  to  have  other  edifices  erected  for  their  use. 

Such  as  were  actually  ejected  may  be  classified  thus  : — 

1.  Those  who  were  displaced  before  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  by 
the  return  of  Episcopahan  incumbents  to  claim  their  sequestered 
livings,  or  by  some  other  circumstances.  Baxter,  at  the  Savoy 
Conference  in  1661,  referred  to  '■'■some"  even  ^'■several  hundreds," 
"  of  late  cast  out."  In  a  letter  referred  to  on  page  295,  the  writer, 
probably  William  Hook,  speaks  of  sixteen  hundred  removed  on 
St.  Bartholomew's  day,  and  of  as  many  being  removed  before. 
This  is  no  doubt  an  exaggeration,  but  it  suggests  that  the  number 
before  bore  a  large  proportion  to  the  number  afterwards. 

2.  Those  who  were  displaced  on  St.  Bartholomew's  day.  Of 
their  number  we  have  no  precise  information,  and  it  is  useless  to 
deal  with  conjectural  calculations. 

3.  Those  who  were  ejected  after  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  through 
increased  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  them. 

Some  are  mentioned  by  Calamy  and  Palmer,  who  afterwards 
conformed,  but  passed  through  much  conflict  before  they  did  so. 
Calamy's  entire  hst  includes  2190  ;  and  Palmer  alludes  to  a  MS. 
which  gives  2257,  "qui  propter  legem  Uniformitatis,  Aug.  24, 
A.D.  1662,  ab  Ecclesia  Anglicana  secesserunt."  In  notes  men- 
tioned on  page  289  of  this  Volume  the  number  given  is  i960. 
These  authorities  are  intended  to  include  all  the  silenced  as  well 


504 


APPENDIX. 


as  all  the  ejected,  whether  before  or  after  St.  Bartholomew's  day. 
Baxter,  who  was  Calamy's  main  guide,  and  who  knew  more 
about  the  matter  than  any  one  else,  says,  "  When  Bartholomew 
day  came,  about  one  thousand  eight  hundred,  or  two  thousand 
ministers  were  silenced  and  cast  out."  ("  Life  and  Times,"  1 1.  385.) 
It  may  be  added  that  in  the  lists  of  names  given  by  Calamy 
and  Palmer,  a  large  number  have  no  particulars  attached. 


END   OF  VOL.    liL 


I'RINTED  Uy  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND  SONS,  LIMITED,  LONDON  AND  BECCLES. 


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